Shikenkan Baby
by Sugihara
Summary: Finally, the fight is over... or so they thought until they find an experiment from Hojo... or someone else, maybe. Planned RenoxTifa. Please R
1. Phantom of Nightmare

_Translation of the title is test-tube baby. _

Rating: PG-16 (just to be safe)

_Warnings: AU, Darkfic, Romance / Drama, Mystery / Action…_

Dedication: Well… still dedicated to Vincent Valentine… therefore, Reno… hm, well, who else? -shrugs- whatever…

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Final Fantasy VII, neither the characters nor the locations… they all belong to Squaresoft / Square Enix… the only things I actually own are my added original characters and the plot… I don't make any profit with this story, though comments are always welcome. XD_

Comment: After reading On the way to a smile, seeing Advent Children and trailers of Dirge of Cerberus I am in need to rewrite this story a little… most of all because I saw that Lucrecia has the same family name as my Naomi (I didn't know Lucrecia's family name when I started this)… I hope you guys will still like this story, though.

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**Chapter 1**

Opening: _Phantom of Nightmare_ (by _Baiser_)

They all felt quite exhausted when they returned to Cosmo Canyon. On the outside, this seemed to be the town which was least affected by Meteor, but its citizens were just as excited as everyone else living on this planet. After Holy had prevented the destruction of the world by Meteor, everyone was relieved and celebrating the saviours of Gaia - Avalanche. The usual rhythm of the drums filled the canyon, but there were also loud joyful screams and cheers to be heard. At first, no one noticed the newcomers who looked like all they needed was a hot bath and some hours of sleep.

Tifa put a strand of her long dark brown hair back and smiled slightly. She didn't really feel like it, but somehow she was glad that those people were still able to celebrate, though she didn't want to think about the price they'd had to pay for it. She knew that she should be satisfied to be one of those who made it possible that everyone could continue their lives, but she couldn't forget what they'd lost.

Somehow, none of her companions seemed to really enjoy themselves, though. Cloud looked somewhere off into space without really seeing something, Cide smoked his cigarette with a strange expression on his face and scratched his three-day beard. Yuffie wasn't as cheerful as usual and even Cait Sith didn't jump up and down with his moogle. Red XIII looked quite stern, just like Barret. And Vincent's facial expression was just the same as always - unreadable, stoic and it betrayed no thoughts or emotions.

Red XIII stepped forward until some of the celebrating people finally noticed their arrival.

On of the elders approached them. He led them to the Cosmo Candle and offered some drinks. "You look tired," he said after a short examination.

Cloud nodded. "Yeah... it's been some hard days, after all."

"No one expected it to have been easy," the elder replied. "Here... have something to drink. You won't need to stay long, but we would all appreciate if you could rest with us for a little while, before you go to sleep."

Tifa smiled a little. "Okay. But there's nothing that I feel more need of than a hot bath and a comfortable bed, to be honest."

Cid and Yuffie agreed immediately, Barret growled something that sounded like a "yes". Cait Sith squealed in delight, though he was a toy and didn't need to drink... or sleep. But it meant that Reeve, who controlled the cat, could take a much needed rest. Vincent, on the other hand, stayed silent as usual. Tifa suspected that he didn't eat, drink or sleep as well. At least, she had never seen him do that.

A sudden rush of pity overcame her. She had known him for some time now, but she didn't know much about him. He had loved this Lucrecia... when he had been a Turk... and later as well, maybe he still did. Hojo had done things with and to him no one could ever imagine. He was some host to several demons he didn't want and couldn't really control. And that was it.

The enigmatic gunman sat down between Cid and Cait Sith without saying anything. When the elder brought the offered drinks, he accepted his politely and put it down in front of him. While the others talked, he just sat there staring into the Eternal Flame.

It didn't last very long until Tifa couldn't stand it any more.

She was tired of listening to Cloud arguing with Barret, about Corel, responsibilities, Mako, Aerith's death... So she stood up and went over to Cid's side and sat down. The blond pilot paused his argument with Yuffie and looked at the young woman.

"Hey, little sis..." he grinned at her.

"Hey," she replied, smiling faintly.

"You okay?" Cid asked in concern. He could tell by the look on her face that something was bothering her. And he thought he knew what it was, but he didn't want to press matters.

Tifa blinked in surprise. "Well... sort of," she said. "I think."

"You think," the pilot echoed. "Is it about our little jackass?"

The young woman was a little taken aback by this question. "What do you mean?"

"Hey... it was just a suggestion, don't kill me!" Cid held his hands up in surrender, trying to lighten the mood a little, though he wasn't really successful... at least not as much as he had hoped for.

"I wasn't going to." Tifa couldn't help but smile at her friend. He always tried to make her feel better, and for that, she was very grateful. But then something that was spinning through her thoughts for quite some time now made her flinch. "I miss her!" Tifa suddenly said, on the verge of tears. She tried hard to fight them back, but failed miserably. She couldn't suppres the feeling of guilt, she hadn't been able to save her.

Cid looked thunderstruck. "Hey..." he murmured while patting her back lightly. He could guess to whom Tifa was referring without even thinking about it. "She wouldn't want you to cry like that," he tried to calm her down. "She'd want you to be happy."

Sniffing silently, Tifa looked up at him. "I know that... but... but..." She let out a half suppressed sob.

Not really knowing what to do, Cid laid his arms around her, streaking her hair. "There..." He threw a sideways glance at Yuffie, silently pleading for support. This wasn't just his kind of stuff.

But the young ninja wasn't too good with these things, either. She raised her eyebrow, stood up and sat down at Tifa's other side.

Cloud, who was still in deep conversation with Barret, caught this action out of the corner of his eyes. Curious about what was going on, he tilted his head to see Tifa crying on Cid's shoulder, while Yuffie and the blond pilot were comforting her as good as they could manage. He grew slightly concerned. He had thought that she was right beside him. Surely, he had missed something. What was wrong with her?

Barret looked at Cloud, somewhat disappointed. "Would you _please_ answer my question?"

"Huh?" Cloud blinked, puzzled. "What did you just say?" He had been so absorbed in his thoughts... worrying about Tifa... and other things... that he hadn't caught what his comrade had just said.

Barret sighed. "I'd prefer if you could get your thoughts from Aerith... at least for a little while... and back to our conversation. I know you miss her and all, but..."

"I wasn't thinking about Aerith," Cloud interrupted him, frowning.

"Sure!"

"No, I wasn't," the blonde retorted. "It's just that I wondered what may be wrong with Tifa."

"Yeah... Tifa... what!" His head shot to the direction Cloud indicated, and he saw that their leader was right.

The brown haired womand had finally stopped her crying. Wiping her eyes, she grew aware that most of the group had directed their attention on her, and it made her feel uncomfortable. She didn't want them all to worry about her. "I'm okay..."

"Are you sure?" Cloud asked concerned. Somehow, it hurt him to see Tifa sad and suffering. He didn't want anyone to suffer, least of all her... they had shared so many things in their past... "If you've got something on your mind... you know, you can talk about it... you can trust me... us..." he added with a swift look around.

Tifa nodded. "Yeah... it's just that... all the stress and such... it came over me all of a sudden... I'm just exhausted, that's all... nothing more..."

Barret raised an eyebrow. He had known Tifa for too long to accept this explanation. She never cried for no reason... But he knew she was exhausted. They all were. And he didn't want to stress things more right now, so he wouldn't make her tell what was on her min when she clearly didn't want to. That was why he interrupted Cloud as he wanted to say something to Tifa, though earning a death glare from the blond haired leader, but not caring about it in the least. All he cared about now was some peace, finally. And there was just one way to get this.

"Well... whatever, I'm going to bed now. And it would be best, if you would, too. _All_ of you," he exclaimed, directing the emphasis at Cloud, who had opened his mouth in protest, but gave in as he saw that Tifa shot Barret a grateful look before she stood up and made her way to the inn.

"That was a fast retreat," Red XIII threw in, who had not wanted to get involved in personal matters between those humans, though he could claim them his friends, but he wasn't human after all. And so he wasn't the one to judge such things which were just... trivial to him. But he could understand them somehow. He, too, was glad to finally get to rest. And so he went in the same direction as Tifa had before.

Blinking in confusion, Yuffie looked around at the others. They all nodded in more or less agreement. Apparently, this was a good time to leave and get some well earned sleep. There were still some matters that needed to be discussed but it had not to be now. It could wait until later.

After all of them had left, the only one still sitting at the Candle was Vincent. He didn't feel like sleeping... or anything else for that matter. The drink he had been given by the elder before still stood untouched on the ground in front of him. His knees pressed to his chest, the arms laid around them, he just sat there, thinking... about the past... the present... and the possible future...

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_**A/N:** So... I already know, where this story is going, but I'm still trying to figure out the details for getting it there... I think the next parts will contain Avalanche as well, but then I will switch to the original character I'm going to add... and this will be the most difficult part for all I planned... XD I hope you enjoy this... please R&R_


	2. Where will you go

_**A/N:** I'm glad to see that there actually seem to be people who like the 'crap' I'm writing. XD This makes it of course more pleasurable to continue this. Besides, I'm really sorry that I didn't update sooner, but I've got so much on my mind, lately, and with everything that's going on... we moved to another place and had to wait one month before we had internet, and unfortunately my system crashed, I had to start this chapter again, though it was almost completed before... -.- so, please bear with me... after all, we moved to another place, two weeks earlier than originally planned... so we didn't have internet in this time... -.- Since I don't usually write longer stories in English (for it is not my native language) I hope that there are not too many mistakes... and I really hope you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing. XD_

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**Chapter 2**

Opening: _Where will you go_ (by _Evanescence_)

Tifa sighed as she rolled over onto her back. Though she felt like she hadn't slept in at least a week, she was lying there and wasn't able to get to sleep. There were so many things on her mind that all she did now was rolling from one side to the other and back again.

She still couldn't really understand what had gotten into her earlier when she had been crying on Cid's shoulder. Of all the things she wanted now, after Meteor was destroyed, getting the others to worry about her didn't belong to them. Just because she felt like the past events were slowly getting to her, one after the other.

Sure... it had been some time since Aerith's death... but she still needed some more time to get over it... if she would ever be able to. She knew that she wasn't the only one missing the flower girl. She had to be strong, even if it was just for the sake of the others. She wanted them to be proud of her. Most of all Aerith, wherever she was now. It was kind of hard, she really missed her.

Now that they had defeated ShinRa, Sephiroth and Meteor, they would return to their own lives. All of them. It was obvious that Cid would go back to Rocket Town, Yuffie would either continue her materia hunting or return to Wutai. Red XIII had to protect Cosmo Canyon, just like his ancestors had done. Barret would most likely move to Corel, with his adoptive daughter Marlene and maybe even Elmyra, to rebuild the coal mines or do other stuff for his hometown.

The only ones of whom she didn't know what they would do after they'd left tomorrow were Cloud and Vincent. And, of course, herself. Since Nibelheim was different from the time when she had been living there, and the people were just ShinRa employees, she didn't know if she wanted to live there. She also couldn't go back to Midgar, where she had run her bar, the '7th Heaven', for that sector 7 had been destroyed by ShinRa... or rather: The Turks. And the rest of the town was mostly destroyed by Meteor.

Maybe she could go with Cloud, for that he had also lost his home, just like her. If he wanted to take her with him, and she wasn't too sure about that. He missed Aerith, too. And the thought that he actually may have loved her sent a pain through her heart that she'd never thought she would ever experience.

She tried desperately to distract herself from those painful thoughts, but at first she couldn't find anything to come up with. And she was slightly surprised when she ended up with wondering what Vincent would do after their separation the next day. Tifa found it disturbing to think about the possibility that the enigmatic gunman could go back into his coffin under the ShinRa mansion in Nibelheim.

Hopefully, he would try to live a halfway normal life from now on, since he'd taken care of his self-accustomed sins with killing Hojo and Sephiroth. Partly, at least. It was sure that it wouldn't be easy for him, with the fact that he was host to four demons, which took every opportunity to take control over him.

Vincent would need someone to support him, someone who would help him getting used to live without ShinRa, without the Turks... and even without Avalanche.

Tifa was so deep in thought that she didn't hear the knock at the door and failed to notice that Yuffie silently entered the room. The young ninja tiptoed to the brunette's bed. When she saw the older woman lying on her bed, her eyes wide open but not moving at all, she grew slightly worried.

It seemed that something really _was_ wrong with her.

"Tifa?" Yuffie whispered without getting any response. Her eyes slid over the other one's body, not really thinking about what she was looking for. But there wasn't anything that seemed unnatural. Apparently, Tifa was unharmed - at least on the outside.

Slowly, she reached down, grasping Tifa's arm, in order to find a pulse. She wanted to make sure that her friend wasn't dead. Though she didn't know why that would be.

Tifa still didn't notice that the young ninja had entered her room; she just felt someone touching her arm. She suddenly jerked, sat up and lunged out for whatever was 'attacking' her. Her left hand hit something hard, but there was something quite soft as well.

Yuffie yelped as Tifa hit her, immediately falling backwards out of shock and the sudden impact. Though she was glad that she got at least some reaction, she hadn't expected _this_...

It took some time for Tifa to realize what had actually happened. Slowly, she looked to her left, just to see Yuffie sitting on the floor, holding one hand above her right eye.

After about two minutes of absolute silence, it finally sunk in that she had given her young friend quite a nice blow. Tifa gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh Yuffie... I am _so_ sorry about that..."

The young ninja made an indefinable noise and put her hand down. It was more than obvious that she would end up with a black eye, it was already beginning to feel sore. "What on Gaia did I earn this for?"

At first, the brunette didn't know what to say. "Well... I didn't mean to... you know... but I didn't expect someone to be here in my room... so I thought... well..." She shrugged helplessly, failing to find an explanation for why she had reacted like that. It was true, she had not expected someone to pay her a visit. She hadn't been aware that she had been so deep in thought so she would ignore anything happening around her.

Yuffie, on the other hand, just cocked an eyebrow, unfortunately the one on her right-hand side. Immediately, she pulled a face at the pain. After carefully touching her sore eye she stood up and went over to Tifa. "Originally, I wanted to check if you were alright. But you seem to manage just fine."

Tifa turned a light shade of red. "So... you've been worried?"

The ninja nodded. "Of course. After you suddenly began to cry earlier, it was just natural for me to take a look if you were okay."

The older woman didn't think it was necessary, but appreciated it as well. "I didn't want you to worry about me. I'm sorry... especially about this..." She indicated Yuffie's right eye. "Shall I cure this?"

Yuffie raised her eyebrow at that. "Well... it is not as bad as you might think... I think I will survive." She flashed one of her trademark grins. "Maybe the others think I won a fight."

Tifa frowned. "You shouldn't go boasting about something that's actually not true...'

"I know, I know... I promise I won't."

"Sure?"

"Yep. Promise. So… you sure you're alright?"

The brunette looked surprised. "Of course. It was just some kind of... well... the stress of the past months set through, I guess..."

Yuffie sighed. If Tifa didn't want to talk about it, then she would leave it at that. She couldn't force the other one to spill things she didn't want to. So she gave her friend a genuine smile and hugged her. "Well then... I think I'll go to bed... I'm tired as hell, and since I don't have to worry about you, I can get some much needed rest."

Tifa returned the embrace and nodded. "Yeah... goodnight, then. And sweet dreams." She shot the young ninja a worried look. "Are you sure that I shouldn't cure this?"

Yuffie slowly backed away. "I am sure. Goodnight." And with that, she retreated from the room and carefully closed the door behind her.

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_**A/N:** Yeah... I know it is short...very short... I hope the next chapter will be longer... and I still hope that you like this thing here... I would really appreciate it, if you could tell me what you think about it..._


	3. Sleepless Beauty

_**A/N:** Long time no update... I'm really sorry... but it's not as easy as I thought to continue this one here. -.- But I do my best to get where this is supposed to go. I swear! XD Besides... I wanted to say thanks to those who were kind enough to review this story, you make it worth to continue this thing. :)_

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**Chapter 3**

Opening: _Sleepless Beauty_ (by _The Seeker_)

Tifa wasn't the only one who couldn't get to sleep for quite a long time that night.

After she had left, Yuffie didn't feel like going back to her own room, so she decided to take a walk through the canyon. Everyone else beside Tifa and herself was sleeping anyway. Or so she thought.

Slowly, she made her way to a group of rocks and climbed them carefully, as to not trip and fall down. When she reached the top, she made sure to find a quite comfortable spot to lay down and watch the night sky. Since Meteor wasn't up there anymore she had a clear view and was able to see the stars.

Yuffie was glad about it. She never seemed to take anything serious, but the truth was that she had been really afraid that this big piece of shit could have fallen down onto the planet and destroyed everything she knew.

She was still too young to die. And she had never wanted that other people had to die, too. Most of all her father and the other people of Wutai. Added to this, she would have been really mad if her friends wouldn't have made it. It was bad enough that Sephiroth had killed Aerith. She would never have been able to live with it when she would have lost one of the others, too. She would really miss Cid's swearing or Tifa's kindness. Even Vincent's strange behaviour.

Sighing, Yuffie sat up. Maybe this was what Tifa had been thinking about earlier, when she had been crying on Cid's shoulder.

It was more than understandable that the whole world was happy about the disappearance of Meteor, Sephiroth and ShinRa. When she thought about how most people had suffered under them... and the planet...

She didn't know how much time had passed, but suddenly she felt very tired. All she wanted to do now was going to bed. Yuffie stumbled down the rocks and went back to the inn.

Just before she entered she saw something that caught her attention.

Vincent was still sitting at the Cosmo Candle, motionless, eyes wide open, apparently thinking about some stuff.

At first, Yuffie wanted to go inside as if she hadn't seen him... but somehow, she couldn't. She didn't know why, but the way he was sitting there, all by himself... got to her. Though his face showed no emotions, she had the feeling that he was thinking about his so-called sins he thought he had committed.

For some time she just stood there, watching him. He didn't seem to notice her. Should she go and ask if he was alright? She could guess what would happen then. Either he would just nod and continue staring into the flame, or he'd send her away, not answering her question at all. But she couldn't let him sit there alone all night. Maybe she should accompany him for a while at least.

"What are you doing here?"

Yuffie jerked and turned around, just to see Nanaki standing right in front of her. "Don't - do - that - again!" she panted. "You almost scared me to death!"

The orange cat flicked its tail. "I'm sorry, that was not my intention," he replied. "I was just wondering why you are here, in the middle of the night."

"I couldn't sleep... that's all." The young ninja sighed.

"What happened to your eye?"

"Huh?"

"Your right eye... it looks like someone hit you."

Yuffie carefully touched her sore eye and flinched. "Yeah... you're right."

"What happened, then?"

"Well..." She wasn't sure if she should tell him, but she didn't want to lie to him, either. "Tifa hit me."

Nanaki made a surprised sound. "Why?"

"I was looking for her, wanted to know if she was alright. I was worried. I entered her room, because she didn't answer the door and I found her lying on her bed... I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay with her. She was deep in thought, so she didn't notice me at first. And then she hit me."

"In other words, it was your own fault."

Yuffie blinked. "What?"

The expression the big orange cat wore looked like he was trying to hide a grin. "You get what you earn for sneaking into someone's room, disturbing people's privacy. Especially Tifa's."

"I didn't _sneak_ into her room!"

"Wow... and there was me thinking I was the only one up right now!" they heard a very familiar voice beside them and for the second time in less than half an hour Yuffie jumped out of shock. She turned around to see Cloud's surprised face.

"What is it with you guys?" the young ninja scolded. "Why does everyone have to scare me like Hell?"

Nanaki let out a snort of laughter while the blond leader looked from one to the other. He didn't quite get what was going on now. Yuffie scowled at both of them and then stormed away, heading to her room.

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_**A/N:** Yeah... I know it's short... again... -.- I promise the next part will be longer... really! I hope there are still some people who read this thing, though..._


	4. Junk City

_**A/N:** Well... I will leave the Avalanche members for some time, I don't want this story to get boring, so I will skip to Midgar. For that I don't want to spoil anything, I won't tell you too much here... just read it and tell me what you think about it, okay? Yeah... and again, I would like to thank those people who were so kind to review this thing so far... hope you guys still like it... :)_

_After I had promised to make chapter 3 longer, and it wasn't -.- I really tried hard to fulfill this promise now... with the fourth chapter... I'm quite surprised it actually worked out... XD this story is much harder to write than I thought..._

_Dragon Girl323: Don't worry, I didn't forget you XD I'm glad that I have at least one loyal reader and reviewer. :) huggles I hope this update was soon enough for you, and you still like the story._

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**Chapter 4**

Opening: _Junk City_ (by _/\ucifer_)

Reno sighed when he entered the ruins of the former ShinRa Headquarters, closely followed by Rude and Elena. "This is fucking crazy..." he muttered. "How on Gaia should we find something interesting here? Or something that's at least a little bit useful?" That was a big mystery to him, for that most of the things which were in this building had been destroyed. And the rest would be of no interest to them.

"I don't know what you're complaining about... at least we've got something to do..." Elena noted. "And not all people are as lazy as you are..."

Rude grinned but didn't say anything. He'd rather listen to Reno and Elena fighting about something than join in.

"I didn't say this because I don't want to do something... I really think it is pointless to search here... there's just rubbish in this place..." Reno tried to defend himself.

"As if you were _not_ lazy..." Elena retorted. "Honestly, if all of the people were like you..."

The redhead rolled his eyes, refusing to reply. This was going to end nasty, if he did. He knew the blonde's temper and didn't want her to focus it on him. Though... there were some things he wanted to say to her, badly. But he knew he was going to regret it as soon as he said what he wanted to. So he preferred to stay quiet for once.

"Hey, why don't you say anything? Are you afraid that I'm right? I know you would..."

Elena couldn't finish her last sentence, because Reno turned around with an annoyed look on his face. He was growing impatient with her. He knew she loved to babble along and more so if she could make him angry. She never knew where boundaries lay.

"Would you do me the favour and _just shut up_?" Reno growled. "I'm starting to get a headache if you continue to rattle on."

The blond Turk looked at him in surprise. "But..."

"Elena... drop it," Rude finally objected. "Just let us get this done so we can go home as early as possible. This place is giving me the creeps already."

Elena's jaw dropped and she resembled a fish. She knew he was right. It was really creepy here. And she'd rather be anywhere but here. Why on Earth did they have to be here, anyway? "Okay... I guess," she said.

Reno breathed a sigh of relief. He just wanted to get this done and then get out of here. He didn't like this place. He never had. Even before this Weapon thing and Meteor had destroyed this building and most of its surroundings. And still, he didn't get why the should look for anything here of all places. There was nothing than crap to be found, that he was sure of.

"Maybe, Reeve wants us to get something out of the old labs?" Rude pondered. All he earned was a disgruntled snort from his redheaded companion.

"What do you expect us to find there?" he asked grumpily. "Want some relics?"

"Save your sarcasm for later, when we are safe," Rude replied dryly.

"Sorry." With that, Reno turned around and went over to what looked like the leftovers of the elevators. "I think they are out of order," Elena called after him. He just ignored her. There was nothing else he could do, otherwise he would strangle her soon enough.

Rude came over to where he was and squatted next to him. For some time, he looked at the controls. After a few minutes, he began fumbling with the wires which lay open.

"You try to get those elevators to work again?" Reno asked.

His comrade just nodded and continued his work silently. Some minutes later, he finally decided to help him. And to their surprise, they were successful. With a buzzing sound the machines came back to life.

"Wow," was all Elena could say. She was really impressed that they had been able to repair this machine. Maybe she had underestimated Reno because of his carefree and weary behaviour. Maybe, it was finally time to change her mind about him... at least a little. "But I don't think you will get far, though."

"What makes you think that?" Reno wanted to know as he cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Well... I'm not sure if there is much left of the elevators in the upper floors... since a part of the building has been blown up..." she said slowly.

Cursing loudly, Reno kicked some trash away. He hated to admit it, but she sure had a point. It was most likely that they really had to walk upstairs. "Let's give it a try..." he muttered darkly. There was no way for him to walk 70 floors.

"If you say so..."

The Turks entered the damaged elevator. Reno searched his pockets for the cards he would need to enter the different floors, but couldn't find them. "Shit," he mumbled. "I think I lost them." Cursing, he turned his pockets upside down, inside out, just finding his keys, wallet and PHS - but no cards for the floors.

"Hm..." Elena had looked for herself, though she still didn't believe that they would come far with the elevator, but with the same result. She didn't have those cards, either. "What now?"

Rude thought about it. There were just two possibilities. Either, he would be able to manipulate the system - and hope that the lifting hole would reach up to the top, for that matter - or they had to climb the stairs. And he knew that the second option was rather out of question. Reno would kill him if he made him walk up 70 floors if there was another way. He turned to the device and took out his screw driver. Silently, he got to work.

This time, Reno just stood there watching him. Getting machines to work was one thing, manipulating them another. That was not his kind of thing.

Much to their astonishment, Rude didn't take very long to finish his task. "Okay," he said. "Where do we begin our search?"

Elena raised her eyebrows. "Maybe, we should begin with the labs. There we could find something... most likely."

Reno and Rude nodded. "Well... I don't like Hojo's lab, but the sooner we can get out of there, the better," Reno muttered and pressed the button for the 68th floor.

When the elevator stopped, the doors silently opened and the Turks stepped out. It was a sheer miracle that they got up there, despite the fact that there was not very much left from the upper floors due to the destructions by Meteor and Weapon.

Carefully, they began to search through the lab, trying not to fall over the garbage lying around everywhere.

Reno pulled a face. "If you ask me, we're just wasting time here..."

"No one did ask you!" Elena said. "So get your lazy ass to work!"

"Who asked for your opinion, anyway?" Reno retorted.

"Stop it, guys," Rude interrupted before they had a chance to have a go at each other.

Reno gave him an annoyed look but didn't say anything. He didn't want to be here any longer than necessary. He walked over to the broken accelerator that Hojo had once used for his experiments on his so called 'precious specimen'. He shuddered at the thought that the madman had done things to humans that no person in their right mind would ever dream of. Buf Hojo had been far from normal - or even human.

He jumped when he thought he heard a scratching noise from somewhere. His heart was pounding loudly in his ears and his breath quickened. Had he really heard that sound? Or had he just imagined it? The second was more likely, this place had always given him the creeps.

Elena frowned. "Did you hear what I just heard?" she asked no one in particular.

Rude looked at her. "You mean that scratching?"

She just nodded. Reno suddenly felt sick. He wanted to get out of here. Now! What had gotten into him when he had agreed to help Reeve?

"Please... let's just get away..." Elena pleaded and turned around without waiting for an answer. She had just made a few steps when something crashed on the floor beneath them.

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_**A/N:** There... chapter 4 finally done... hehe... and the next part is coming soon, hopefully... I really hope you enjoyed this one :) I will continue in Midgar, I think you all want to know what is going on there, on the 69th floor. XD And I promise, I won't let you down. After that, I may eventually skip back to Cosmo Canyon, but that is to see when I finished the 5th chapter._


	5. Prisoner

_**A/N:** Wow... the last chapter was finished really fast... I hope I get it like that more often XD again, I'd like to thank my reviewers... even if there are just a few of them... to be honest... mostly, I write stories for myself, for my personal pleasure... but it is a lot more fun when other people like my stuff and tell me that... so... please don't stop reviewing now XD you guys rock )_

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Opening: _Prisoner_ (by _Aya_)

She felt a sharp pain in her left arm when she woke up. How long had she been asleep? Had she been sleeping at all? She tried to remember what had happened.

She knew she had been sitting in a small room, instead of an ordinary door there had been iron bars. So that meant that she was locked up. But where, or why, she didn't know... everything was just a blur...

Beside that she just remembered that there had been a loud rumbling... and sirens... people shouting something about a weapon... and then... she had heard something explode, the walls broke... falling down on her... and then everything went black... and that was it...

Whad had happened after that? Or rather... before?

Slowly, she opened her eyes to see what caused her the immense pain. It was a large rock that had fallen onto her arm. When she took a look around she noticed that some other rocks were lying there, but had fortunately missed her. At the wall right in front of her was a sign that read: '_Test subject NC558_'.

She blinked. Somehow, this rang a bell. NC... she couldn't quite remember what this meant. Or where she had heard it before. She thought to remember that someone had told her once what these initials stood for, but she failed to get the meaning behind them.

After a short while she began to feel dizzy. She could think about that later. For now, it was more important that she got this damn boulder off her arm. She sat up a little, though it hurt a lot. But she had no time to worry about that. With her right hand she slowly pushed against that rock. And to her surprise, it moved.

It took her some time to get it off her arm, but she managed to do it. When she felt that her left arm was finally free, she was relieved. It still hurt, but she was able to move it a little. Slowly, she got up, but she had to lean on the wall, for that she felt a little weak. She didn't know for how long she had been lying there, but it had to be more than just a few hours.

Carefully, she made one step to the cell door, then stopped. It seemed that she was at least able to walk. She needed to get out of here somehow.

Maybe there was a handle to open this cell door, though she doubted it.

After looking around for some time, she sighed in disappointment. She couldn't find anything there. There had to be a way to open this door. It just had to be. She didn't want to be stuck in here forever. Suddenly, she went rigid. If she heard correctly, there was someone on the floor just above her. She wanted to call out, so they could let her outof here, but she didn't get out more than just a harsh whisper. That was no big surprise, since she hadn't spoken for she didn't know how long.

Desperately wanting to get out of her prison, she lunged at the iron bars. She didn't expect that this could be a way to get free. So she was more than just a little surprised when the bars gave way and she fell to the floor with them, bringing her hands up to her ears to shield them from the deafening clatter and trying to brace herself against the pain when the bars would hit her.

_T.T_

After a few minutes, Reno finally regained his composure. He looked at Rude, who stood frozen to the spot where he had been before, then at Elena, who cowered on the floor, slightly trembling. What the hell could that have been? Was there still something left of Hojo's sick experiments? He surely hoped not. But what else could have made this noise? Maybe just something that had been hanging loose and chosen now as a good time to fall down? He doubted it.

"I'd say one of us stays here and the other two go down and look what that was."

Elena tilted her head and looked at him as if he had gone incredibly mad. "You crazy?" she inclined. "You will never get me down there, and I won't stay here on my own. Just forget about that, Reno!"

"Fine!" the redhead responded. "Then I will go down alone."

Rude frowned. "You sure?"

Reno nodded. "Yeah... I don't think that anything would have a go at me down there... since Tifa's not in town anymore." He smirked a little at his comment. It sure was strange. Every time they met, Tifa would always try and hit him, though she never really succeeded anyway. He found himself wondering where she could be now, and how she was doing after kicking Sephiroth's sorry little ass.

After some seconds he shrugged it off. He could think about that later, when they got out of here. And that would better be soon. This place was scaring the living daylights out of him, even though he didn't show it.

"Okay..." Rude sighed. "Elena and me will look around and see if we can find anything interesting here, while you check that floor. After this we will get out of here as soon as possible. I don't want to stay here longer than necessary."

Elena blinked and stood up. "And what about Reeve? He wanted us to..."

The older Turk just cut her off. "I don't care about what Reeve has to say about that. He will understand that it's no pleasure to be roaming this place, anyway."

Not wanting to get involved in this discussion, Reno made his way to the small elevator that would bring him to the floor down below. He silently prayed that there would be nothing to worry about. The sooner he got out of here, the better.

_T.T_

She was lying there on the ground, panting heavily, not able to get up. This incident had almost scared her to death. How could she have expected something like this to happen?

Slowly, she calmed down a little. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she looked at herself. She was glad to see that her imprisoner had been decent enough to give her some clothing. Or had it always been her own? She couldn't remember. She'd prefer the second, for that matter.

It caught her completely by surprise when she heard some strange swooshing noise that she couldn't relate to anything she knew. What could that be? Maybe she had been right, and there really was someone in this building, other than herself. If it was her imprisoner, or someone who worked here, or maybe just someone completely different, she didn't know. She would have to see when the person would arrive here.

But if there wasn't anyone coming to this area? She wasn't even sure if there was still anyone who knew about her being here.

* * *

_**A/N:** Finally done... phew... never thought it would be that hard to write this... but I think, I get it... little by litte... for those who want to know: NC558 is a random specification, NC stands for 'Naomi Crescent'. And the number means nothing more than Hojo liked to use numbers for his experiments. Just like Red XIII... the name "Naomi" means "delightful; pleasant"... and "Crescent" is originally a first name with the meaning "one who creates"... but for this story, I use it as a famliy name and changed the meaning to "one who is created"... just to fit the character into this..._

_Still, this is no self-insert... and it's not Mary Sue..._


	6. Koko dewa nai, dokoka e

_**A/N:** OK, for those who want to know: The title of this chapter means 'to anywhere but here', of course, it means that Reno & Co. want to get out of the Shinra HQ, for it has been obvious during the previous chapters. XD After this one, I will go back to Cosmo Canyon and push the story where it's supposed to go; hopefully... drop I have so many ideas for this story, that I don't know which to use first..._

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Opening: _Koko dewa nai, dokoka e_ (by _Glay_)

Nervously, Reno tapped his foot on the ground, growing more tense with every second, while the elevator was practically creeping downwards. It was getting worse the longer he had to wait. Why couldn't this go faster?

He didn't know what he should expect to find once he reached his destination. But he didn't really want to think about it. Knowing himself, he would only picture the weirdest things in his mind. But who said that he would be wrong with his suspicions? He would never know before seeing it himself.

Sighing loudly, he tried to disctract his mind from those bizarre thoughts. They only scared the shit out of him even more. He wanted this to be over soon, he would have appreciated it, if it had been over for long. The more he wanted to find something to think about while he was waiting for the elevator to stop, the more he was forced to wonder what he would find, once the doors would open. Suddenly, Reno wasn't too sure if he wanted to know anymore.

What would he do if it was a hideous monster? Or a demon? Maybe even... Jenova?

"Cut it, Reno! Jenova is dead!" he muttered to himself. It was no use when he lost his mind right now. He knew the others were relying on him. He had to find out what was going on. But he was silently cursing that he was stupid enough to do it all by himself. Why had he suggested to go alone, anyway?

Yeah... Elena didn't want to go with him or Rude. And she didn't want to let Rude go with him, either, so she wouldn't have to be left alone up there. Just great! Rely on her to make things worse.

Finally, the elevator stopped and Reno did his best to keep his composure and brace himself for whatever he would find, once he stepped through the slowly opening doors. Closing his eyes for some seconds he heaved a sigh before stepping out with a defensive gesture. At first, he saw nothing than the mess that had been caused by the approach of Meteor. Maybe even when Weapon had been attacking.

He wasn't sure about that, but he didn't care one bit.

Slowly, he made his way through the hall, carefully trying not to trip. Thanks to his years of training he didn't make any sound. He thought he could hear rattling breaths that sounded... human. But that was impossible! How could any human still be here? Hadn't this building been evacuated some time ago? He stopped dead in his tracks and listened carefully. He couldn't be too sure that this was really a human being.

Since he stood directly at the corner to the prison area, he just made one step forward to peek around, for that he thought that the breathing came from there. Probably it was just a poor prisoner whom those damn ShinRa employees had forgotten about when panicking during the Meteor incident and running out of the building. And sure enough, he could see someone sitting there on the floor, breathing hard.

He just saw the legs, so he assumed that the person sat leaning on the wall. There were some iron bars laying around, presumably this had been the reason for the noise before. But... if this human had been imprisoned in one of those cells... and now sat outside on the floor between the iron bars... how could that be? No one was able to break free, once sitting in a cell. This was just impossible.

Not really knowing if he should go back and tell the others that everything was alright, or go and help this person, he just stood there, staring in pure disbelief. When he saw some movement, he went rigid. He had to be careful, even if it looked like just a helpless victim. And he went pale when he turned around the corner to see who was sitting there.

It was a girl.

With his mouth agape, he couldn't stop staring, though he knew he was being rude. That... girl on the floor seemed to notice him, too. She tilted her head and looked at him. She had a nasty cut right above her left eye and many bruises on her arms. Her long, chestnut hair fell loosely over her shoulders down to her waist. But the most... incredible about her were her eyes. The first moment he had thought that they were bright blue, but at a second look they seemed to be violet. And she looked strangely familiar, too, though he didn't know where he thought he had seen her face before.

"... you..." the girl said with a hoarse voice that sounded as if she hadn't used it for a long time. But this was what snapped him out of his momentary state of shock and bewilderment.

Jerkily, he shook his head and went over to her. "I'm sorry... but I was really astonished that there is someone up here," he apologized. He felt that it was necessary to say that, though he didn't really know why. "What happened to you, though? If I may ask."

The girl opened her mouth... and closed it. She blinked a few times before uttering a quiet "I don't know".

Reno squatted beside her. "Well... I don't think this is important right now. But how could you get out of there?"

"I... fell."

The redhead mentally hit himself. This girl had been here for God knew how long and he just asked her some stupid questions. It would be better to get her out of here, first. Later, when she had recovered so far, then he could try and interrogate her.

Reno wanted to lay a hand on her back, just to help her get up, but as soon as he touched her, she flinched. He pulled his hand away as if he had touched some ember. "Did I hurt you?" he asked concerned.

She nodded, her eyes watering. "... not... your fault..." she urged the words out, then indicated the iron bars laying everywhere around them. He understood what she wanted to say. The bars must have fallen onto her.

Screwing his face up, he sighed. "Okay... where does it not hurt, so I can help you get up?" he wanted to know. But instead of waiting for an answer he stood up, took her hand and pulled lightly, so that she got to her feet. Seeing that she was trembling, he bent his knees, his back turned to her.

She made an inquiring noise, not understanding what he intended. So he tilted his head and looked at her. "You can climb onto my back, so I can carry you out of here. It is way easier for you than to walk on your own." He winked at her in order to let her know that it was okay, since he knew that she wasn't responsible for her current state.

Blinking in confusion, she nodded, smiling slightly. Then she followed Reno's 'proposal'.

He was careful when he grabbed her legs, he didn't want to cause her more pain than she was already enduring. Instinctively, the girl laid her arms around his neck, so that she wouldn't fall. When he was sure that she was safely positioned, Reno went back to the elevator. Though it was a little more difficult than before, he managed to push the button.

Now that he didn't dread finding anything he didn't want to see, the ride to the floor above didn't take that long. Soon, the doors opened and he stepped out.

"Found anything?" he called out to Rude, who was sitting on the floor shuffling through some papers. Elena was nowhere to be seen.

His comrade didn't look up at him. "Yeah... I think so..." he sighed.

"Where's El?"

"Gone to the washroom."

"Why... and she did _not_ drag you along with her?" Reno couldn't help but grin. He knew there was no way for Elena to take a male with her when she needed to go to the bathroom, even when something scared her almost to death. "So... what is it that you found there?"

"A report about some experiment. The only one left, I'd say. What about you? Any luck down there?"

Reno chuckled. "Figures."

Finally, Rude tilted his head and his eyes widened. "Oh, my..." he gasped. "Where on Gaia did you _find_ her?" He stared at the girl on Reno's back, slightly shocked. Then he quickly put the papers aside and stood up to help the girl get off his comrade's back and sit down.

"Well..." Reno pretended to think about that. "She was downstairs, imprisoned."

"What!"

The redhead nodded grimly. "Yeah... you know, the noise we heard before... that were some iron bars falling down on her... thus those many bruises on her arms..."

Rude didn't know what to say. He couldn't believe that there was actually someone who had been left behind, though it was said that the building had been evacuated competely. At least, that was what Reeve had told him. But maybe he hadn't known about that girl. Hard to believe, but it was possible. He would ask Reeve as soon as he'd see him.

"Totally tremendous, huh?" Reno stated. "But it's true, I really found her there. But what is that report about?" He snatched the papers from the floor to look at them. Registering that the girl seemed to be curious, too, he shifted a little in her direction. "What the Hell..."

At this moment, the brown haired girl made a strange noise. She had read along and saw some certain specification... NC558... that was the one which was written on that sign in the cell downstairs... and a few lines beneath... a name... Naomi Crescent... so this had to be her name... hadn't it?

Reno looked at her, sensing her excitement. "What is it?"

She pointed at the specification before indicating her name. "I've seen that number before..." she whispered, quite shocked. "It... was on that sign... at my door..."

Rude blinked, confused. "You don't want to tell be that _you_ are 'Test subject NC558'!"

Her mouth agape, she was staring at Rude before shrugging. "I'm not too sure about that..."

The redhead scratched his head. So... this was why she had been locked up. But it didn't really explain anything at all. His eyes were still fixed on the name. "Naomi... nice name..." he muttered. "Is this the name Hojo gave you or is it your own?" he wanted to know.

Elena chose this moment to return. "Finally!" she exclaimed when she saw Reno. Then she noticed Naomi. "Who's that?" She didn't know what to think about that. What was a girl doing here of all places?

Reno and Rude exchanged a glance, then both nodded. They would explain it all later. Firstly, the needed to gt out of here, since they were all together again.

* * *

_**A/N:** I think this chapter is way too short, but there is nothing more to write now. I hope I will get the next chapter out soon... since it will be in Cosmo Canyon, I'm not sure if it will be extraordinarily exciting XD_

_I really do hope you guys still like this story. Please tell me in form of a review. XD_


	7. Missing Piece

_**A/N:** Well... for those who guess... the Turks didn't search the Shinra HQ by night... since Midgar is some miles away from Cosmo Canyon, it would be ridiculous when it would be the same time all over the world. So I decided that I would put the places in at least two or three time zones. So it would be a little more realistic._

_Well... and it seems that this story turns out a little different than I originally planned. So there will be no pairings yet, romance can wait until I sorted everything out. XD_

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Opening: _Missing Piece_ (by _Karen_)

Tifa stretched, yawning, when she stepped out of the inn. She didn't know how long she had been sleeping, since it had been very late before she had been able to get to sleep last night. But right now she didn't care too much about it. All that mattered was that she felt refreshed and much better than she would have thought.

"Yo! Sleepy head!" she heard Cid call, whereas the others who sat with him began to laugh - except Vincent, of course. She turned around, grinning sheepishly. Her friends were sitting gathered around the Cosmo Candle, though she was missing someone... Red XIII and... Cloud.

Tifa frowned. Where could he be? He wasn't the type of person to get up late, even when he hadn't gotten much sleep. Was he wandering around the canyon, thinking about... whatever? Or was he ill, maybe?

She went over to her friends, sitting down between Cid and Cait Sith, who just sat there, motionless. Seemingly, Reeve was still sleeping and hadn't taken his cat and moogle back into action.

"So... slept well, I think?" Cid grinned at her. "Did you dream something pleasurable? Maybe about me?"

Tifa hit him playfully on the arm. "Cid!" she scowled. "No need to pick on me!"

Cid nudged her lightly. "Hey, just kidding, sis," he winked at her. "I know you needed your rest. We all did." He looked around and his eyes fell on Yuffie, expecially her black eye which she tried to hide from the others, but to no avail. "Wow... did you fall out of your bed? Or was there someone punching you because you got on their nerves?" he asked in surprise.

The young ninja shot him a reproachful look. "Don't try me, ol' man... I'm in no mood for your stupid little picking games right now!" she warned him. "It is none of your damn business what happened." With that she turned away from him and pressed her knees to her chest while fumbling with her shoes.

The pilot wanted to give her a suitable reply, but thought otherwise when Tifa tugged at his sleeve. He looked at her and she shook her head. Just when he wanted to ask her if she knew anything about the reason for Yuffie's bad mood, they heard a swooshing sound as Cait Sith was reactivated.

"Hey, back with us already?" Barret asked. "I thought you would cut this toy off and regard to your duties."

"I will," Cait Sith retorted. "But not yet." He turned to Tifa. "Um... would it be too much... if I had a private word with you?" he asked her.

She looked surprised, but nodded anyway. Tifa was about to stand up and follow him to a place where they wouldn't be overheard as Red XIII approached them. "Hey, Tifa," the large orange cat greeted her and nodded to the others in acknowledgement. "I need to talk to you."

"Wha... who am I that you all need to talk to me? First Cait, now you... who will be next?" she wondered.

Nanaki looked at the stuffed toy. "You want to talk to her first?"

Cait Sith sighed. "No, you go ahead... if you say you need to talk to her, it has to be important."

Red XIII let his head drop. "I think it will be importand to Tifa, at least."

"Why? What is it?"

"Cloud has left." And before Tifa could reply he added, "Cloud left last night, when you were all sleeping. He didn't say much, just that you don't have to worry about him and he will be fine. I don't know where he went, or why, but he said that it was important to him and he would come back to you as soon as possible."

The brunette looked at him, shocked, and sank down to her knees. Suddenly, she felt very weak. She could guess why the blonde had left without saying anything to her... he didn't want to hurt her... Surely, he was searching for Aerith, just like he had told her in the Northern Crater, right after he had killed Sephiroth for good and Holy had come to action. Maybe he would go to the City of the Ancients, but she couldn't know for sure. He would have said where he went, if he wanted someone to follow him. Cloud wanted to be alone. He didn't want even her near him. And that was the fact that hurt her most.

Cid stood up and went over to Tifa. "Hey, sis... this stupid bastard is more of a dumbass than I thought, leaving you here... I kind of hoped you two would sort everything out, now that the worst shit is over..."

"Oi, you jerk!" Yuffie called over to him. "Why do you have to make it worse for her? Just let her get over the shock first, will you?" She stood up, too, and crossed her arms. "Besides, Cait Sith wanted to talk to her _in private_, so will you get away from here? The rest of you, too!"

Barret blinked at her, not knowing what to say. He shot a pitiful look at Tifa before getting up and going away while muttering: "If I ever get to see him again, I will kick his sorry little ass for dumping her!"

"I'm really sorry," Nanaki addressed Tifa. "But I thought you would want to know about that. That's why I told you in the first place."

But the young woman shook her head. "No need for you to be sorry, Red. It's not your fault. I just didn't expect him to go away like that... at least not without saying anything..."

The orange cat nudged her with his nose. "If you need anything, you know where to find me," he said before following Barret.

"Same goes with me," Cid added. "Just call me if need be."

"Thanks, Cid. You're a true friend," Tifa replied and gave him a grateful look before he was dragged away by Yuffie. "So... what is it?" She turned to Cait Sith, after her friends had all left them alone.

"Well..." He sounded as if he was quite uncomfortable with the situation. "Now, that Cloud is gone... okay, I wanted to talk to you, anyway... but I guess since Midgar is destroyed and Nibelheim is not longer your home after being burnt down five years ago... I assume you don't really have anywhere to go, do you?"

Tifa stood up and brushed the dust off her knees. "Not really," she simply replied. She didn't know what else she could say, Cait Sith had a point, she really didn't know where she could go now. "Why do you ask?"

The stuffed toy jumped up and down. "Well... I just wanted to ask you if you would like to come to Junon and help me. There are many things left to do now, and I could use every helping hand I can get. So you will have a place to stay and something to do. I think, you'd be glad to have some distraction. Am I right?"

"Erm..." The brunette thought about it. Generally, she was grateful that he offered that to her. She could really use some occupation in order to not think about Cloud's disappearance all the time. She knew he wanted to find Aerith since she was dead, and more so since they had helped Holy to defeat Meteor. Maybe in Junon she would be able to get over it. At least, she hoped for it. After thinking for some minutes she finally nodded. "Yeah... that would be... great..." she said.

Cait Sith gave her a stern look, as far as it was possible. "You know, I would never ask you if I thought you weren't capable of this..."

Tifa smiled faintly. "I know... when do we leave?"

"We are going to leave tonight. I will have to ask Cid, if he can give us a lift with the Highwind... in case that it works."

"Okay." Tifa turned to leave. "Then I will go and ask him, if he is able to get the airship ready by then. I know he will do what he can, at least for me," she said. "And then I will pack my few belongings."

"Fine!" Cait Sith squealed. He was glad that she would help him, he would really need everyone who was willing to, and in return he was able to help her, too. Though it was not mucht he could do for her. But she deserved it, if not her... who else did?

_T.T_

_/Flashback/_

Cloud watched the retreating form of Yuffie, his mouth agape. What the Hell had _that_ been?

Nanaki was still chuckling, Yuffie's shocked facial expression had been priceless. Maybe he should go and try that more often? But then again, the young ninja would punish him sooner or later... it sure was better to not aim at that. After some moments he managed to cool down and he turned to look at Cloud, trying hard not to burst into another fit of laughter.

Cloud's expression grew more confused. Seemingly, he had missed something. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Red XIII shook his head. "No..." he chuckled. "Just... enjoying myself..."

The blonde gave him a puzzled look, not knowing what to think about that. "I thought you were all sleeping by now..."

The orange cat flicked its fiery tail. "That's what I thought, too... but I feel restless at the moment, so I wanted to take a walk. Care to join me?"

Cloud nodded.

"So... why don't you sleep? I thought you would need some rest after the exhaustion of the last battle," Nanaki wanted to know.

"Same as you... feeling restless... there's too much going on in my head to get to sleep," Cloud replied.

Noticing the small bag the other one had with him, Red XIII grew slightly concerned. "Were you planning to leave now?"

Cloud stopped dead in his tracks, caught red-handed. Somehow, he felt a little guilty. He didn't know what to say at first, so he just nodded. Getting no reply, he sighed. "I feel like there's something missing... I don't really know what it is... but I know, I won't be able to relax until I found out what it is... and that's why I was about to leave, just to find out what's missing..."

"Don't you think the others will be upset when you leave without saying anything to them?" Nanaki asked. "Most of all, Tifa?"

The blonde felt fairly uncomfortable. Of course, he had thought about that. But he had no other choice. "I have to go now. Sure, Tifa is my best and longest friend and I don't want to hurt her... but this is rather important to me. I can't stay with any of them until I found what I'm searching for... not even Tifa..." he sighed.

Red XIII felt sorry for Tifa. Losing her childhood friend and the one she loved without really knowing why would really hurt her. It was hard for her to start a new life, since ShinRa had taken her home away twice, now it would be really tough for her. He knew there would be someone who wanted to comfort her, at least Cid or Barret... maybe Yuffie... but she would need some time to get over this. "You know, you're being unfair."

Cloud looked at him. "I care for her very much... and I'm really sorry about that... but this is something I have to do on my own... I think it would hurt her more when I took her with me... but she doesn't have to worry about me... I'm going to be fine..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah... you can tell her that I will come back... to her, as soon as I think I found out what I need." And with that, Cloud told Nanaki goodbye and left Cosmo Canyon.

_/End Flashback/_

_T.T_

"How could he do this?" Yuffie grumbled. "That jerk!"

"I don't know what he's thinking... why does he long for the dead when there's someone alive there for him! He is such a..."

"You don't have to say it!" Barret interrupted Cid. "I don't want to know what you would name him."

"So what!" Cid demanded. "You know, Tifa would do everything for him! I've never seen someone like her... such devotion... how can he ignore that? He's so... stupid!" the pilot blustered. He heaved a frustrated sigh and took a cigarette out of the pack that way laying in front of him and grimaced before he lighted it. He leant back, inhaling the smoke deeply.

"I can't imagine how Tifa must be feeling right now," Yuffie sighed. "She counted on him more than any other..."

"If you ask me..." Red XIII put in, "she is a little obsessed with him. Maybe it will do her good if they are seperated for some time. Then she will see what he really means to her..."

Cid snorted. "Yeah... maybe... and if not?"

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Would you _please_ stop debating this? Shouldn't we rather try and help Tifa to feel better?"

"And how are we supposed to do that?"

The young ninja wanted to say something, but was interrupted when the door flew open and Tifa entered the room. "There you are!" she exclaimed and headed towards Cid.

The pilot raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you with something?"

"I surely hope so!" the brunette replied. "Do you think the Highwind is up to a flight to Junon tonight?" She gave him a pleading look with big brown puppy eyes.

Cid scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure... you know, the airship is not in the best condition lately... but I will see what I can do... may I ask what you are planning to do in Junon?"

"I'm going to help Reeve with a few things... dunno what it is, but I didn't care to ask him about that."

Yuffie smiled at her, glad that the older woman seemed to have found something that would hopefully keep her distracted. She needed something to do when she was worrying about something, so it would be easier for her to cope with it.

"That's good..." Cid said. "At least, I know my little girl is in good hands."

Tifa frowned at that, but smiled anyway. "So I can rely on you?" she asked and when the pilot nodded she turned to go pack some things she would possibly need in Junon.

* * *

_**A/N:** Well... there you are... finally finished the seventh chapter... I decided it to be a little longer than the others, for that the next chapters will take a while, I think... 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' finally arrived, and I will be busy reading it XD but I won't really pause this story, I will still continue it... so there's nothing to worry about XD but still, it could take a little time to write when I'm somewhat occupied... hopefully, the next chapter will be out really soon... at least as soon as possible... XD_

_And I have to figure out where to continue, I'm not really sure yet where the next chapter will take place... but I think, I will find something very soon..._

_I hope you still like my story. And don't stop reviewing please XD I really appreciate some affirmation..._


	8. Double dare

_**A/N:** Wow... I'm surprised, too, that I finished this chapter quite soon... three days and I finished my book... I'm reading too fast XD well... I wish I would write like I read, then I would have this story finished in no time... but... I'm getting this pushed pretty well, at least I think so... though it actually took me some time to figure out where to continue... and more to find a fitting song for this chapter... phew... but finally, I managed it. I just chose this song because I couldn't find a better one -.-._

* * *

**Chapter 8**

Opening: _Double dare_ (by _Acid Android_)

It was late in the afternoon when Reeve stepped out of the helicopter. He stretched, after the long flight he felt a little stiff. But otherwise, he had had plenty of time to think about many things and make some last arrangements. He was really glad that Tifa would arrive here quite soon. And not only her...

Rude, who had been waiting for his arrival, walked up to him and nodded. Reeve, knowing that the other one was not too talkative, just returned the gesture and headed to the exit of the airfield.

"So... what is this... surprise Reno told me about? He wouldn't tell me anything," he inquired, turning left and leading to the way to their destination.

"You'll see when we get there..." the Turk replied.

Reeve sighed. He should have known that he wouldn't get anything out of the quiet man. "Anyway... we get to fetch someone later... I found some people to help us," he said. He tried to imagine when the Turks would see them, and he wasn't too sure if he could. There had been some differences between them, he knew about that. First thing, after meeting with Reno and Elena and seeing what they had in store for him, he would get two rooms prepared.

Some minutes later they stopped in front of a five-story house that had been empty until a few days ago. When Sephiroth had summoned Meteor most people had tried to flee, not thinking about the fact that it had been a futile attempt. How could you possibly escape something that'd be about to destroy everything on this planet?

"Do you know when your people will arrive?" Rude asked when they entered the building.

Reeve just shrugged. "I'll get a call beforehand," he said and descended the stairs. He hoped that Reno wouldn't complain about his decision. Rude wouldn't object, that was for sure... Elena would try her best to comply... but he wasn't too sure about the redhead.

"Yo! Reeve!" Reno called out to him once he entered the room. He was sitting at a table, apparently reading something that had almost his full attention. His face didn't betray any thoughts about the papers that laid in front of him. The redhead sighed, then gathered the sheets together before standing up to greet Reeve properly.

"Is that the 'surprise' you were talking about?" Reeve wanted to know.

Reno cocked his head. "Part of it," he answered vaguely. "You'll see the rest once Elena is finished..."

It was useless to get something out of him now, the Turk was determined to let him wait. He didn't want to give anything away too easily.

Reeve sighed and sat down at the table which Reno had occupied before, trying to take a glimpse at the papers, but the redhead had arranged them that there couldn't be seen anything quite interesting. Somehow it looked like a report, but he couldn't be too sure.

After some time he heard someone come down to them. But it sounded like there were at least two people, because Elena was talking to someone. Reeve raised his eyebrows at that. Surely, that was the second part of the 'surprise' Reno had in store for him. But who could that be? And in which way could that person be linked with those papers on the table? He turned around in his seat, now being really curious about to whom Elena was talking. Thus he didn't see Reno smirk so that the scars below his eyes were almost invisible.

"I know they don't quite fit, but this is better than nothing, huh?" Elena was to be heard from the staircase. "Later, we can get you something different, but for now this should do."

At this moment, the blonde entered the room, closely followed by a tall girl that had brown hair tied into a bun, wearing black trousers and a shirt which didn't seem to fit. She looked a little uncomfortable.

Reeve's jaw dropped. So this was why Reno had said he would see when Elena was finished. Apparently they had been looking for something the girl could wear. He soon noticed that he was gaping and hastily closed his mouth and cleared his throat.

Elena looked at him in surprise, but her features brightened immediately once she recognized him. "Reeve!" she exclaimed. "Good to see you! I assume that they already told you about Naomi?" She went over to him and drew him into a tight embrace which he precariously returned. Elena had never hugged him before, so he was a little stunned.

"Well... actually... we didn't," Rude said quietly. "Reno wanted it to be a surprise."

"What!" The blonde stepped back. "You didn't show him the report, either?"

Reno shook his head. "I wanted him to see her first."

After staring at Naomi for some seconds Reeve finally remembered his manners. He cleared his throat, stood up and stretched his right hand out. "I'm really sorry... I'm Reeve," he introduced himself. "Pleased to meet you."

Reluctantly, Naomi took his hand after glancing at Elena who nodded her approval. "Naomi." She smiled a little.

"Are these... Reno's clothes?" Reeve asked with a hint of amusement in his voice when he looked the girl up and down and then turned around to face the redhead.

Reno raised his hands defensively. "Hey... it's not my fault that Elena's too small..." he compained. "And she really needed something different to wear... she couldn't go anywhere with those dirty things Hojo gave her..."

Now, Reeve was completely confused. "Hojo...? But ain't he... dead?" he whispered, shocked.

Before he got any reply his PHS rang. He blinked and took it out of his jacket to answer it. "Yeah... okay, I'll be there... bye." He closed the connection and turned to leave.

"What is it?" Elena asked.

Reeve didn't listen to her. "Okay, we will sort that out later. I've got to go. Do me a favour and prepare two rooms so they are liveable. I'll explain when I get back." With that, he left the room.

Reno stood there, dumbfounded. "What the Hell was that about?" he wondered.

"He needs to fetch someone," Rude said while crossing his arms.

The redhead blinked, then his expression turned from confused to disapproving. "I don't believe it! Who does he think I am?" he muttered and followed Reeve.

* * *

_**A/N:** Well... I really wanted this chapter to be much longer, but there is not more to it, I fear... there will be hopefully more in the next chapter. I promise, I will finish it as soon as I can. Please tell me what you think and if you still like it in form of a review. _


	9. Agitator

_**A/N:** OK... on to chapter nine... finally there happens something interesting XD and I really had fun with the scene where Tifa and Reno meet each other for the first time in the story XD and this chapter was really hard to write... -- you can believe that..._

_ Dragon Girl323: Well...at first sight Naomi sure seems to be a little plain, but there has just been a short description, I'm far from done with her... just wait, till I have everything worked out to my liking... then you will see what I mean... there is MUCH more to her than anyone has seen yet...-evil smirk-_

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Opening: _Agitator_ (by _Pierrot_)

Cid stood on the bridge of the Highwind with his arms crossed and tapping his foot. He surely hoped the airship wouldn't crash down while they were on their way to Junon. It had almost cost him all of his nerves and little patience when the others had argued where they would go first.

Yuffie had wanted to go to Wutai as soon as possible, of course, while Barret thought it more important to fetch Elmyra and Marlene, so that they could go to Corel with him. The only ones who had not objected when the others were discussing had been Vincent and poor Tifa. He had to admit that he didn't envy her. Cid was glad that she now had somewhere to go after Reeve had offered that she could stay in Junon to help him.

If he had not done this, Cid would have offered her to live in Rocket Town. But he was not really sure if she would have wanted it. Maybe it was better this way.

Silently, he swore to himself. How could Cloud work up the nerve and just leave her? How could he do that to her? Just because of a dead Ancient? Was he really that stupid?

Cid would never say anything against Aerith. She had been a very nice person, always kind to everyone. He had really liked her and had been just as shocked when she had been killed by Sephiroth.

But there was a difference between the shock about someone's death and the obsession to find the dead person somewhere... But on the other hand... there had always been some strange connection between Aerith and Cloud, something he couldn't understand.

Tifa, for instance, had had a connection to Cloud, too. And he had always thought that this bond was indestructible. They had been growing up together, it was only natural that they had much in common, and something indescribable, untouchable. But with Aerith, this bond seemed to have thinned. Maybe too much... beyond repair. Damn him!

He heard footsteps behind him and turned around. Tifa stepped through the door, looking lost. Cid felt a rush of pity towards her.

"Hey, sis!" he greeted her. She looked up and smiled at him, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "I just called Reeve to tell him that we will arrive soon, so he can pick us up at the airfield," she said airily.

Cid nodded. He thought it was good that she didn't have to go alone wherever she had to go. You could never know what would happen to a young woman strolling around alone in a big city like Junon. The pilot wrapped his arms around Tifa and hugged her tight. "I hope you will be okay, if not, just give me a call, all right?" he said sternly.

Tifa looked up to him, blinking. "Yeah... sure, I will," she retorted surprised. How could he think that she would not be okay when Reeve was there? She was sure that he would never do anything that would hurt her... at least, not on purpose. Besides... Vincent was there as well.

The pilot's trainee turned to them. "Captain, sir... we're about to land soon." He saluted and returned to his steering wheel.

The brunette stepped away from Cid and made her way to her cabin, waving a hand at the door and said, "I'm going to get my things now, see you in a bit."

Just outside the bridge she met Yuffie, who sat miserably in one corner, a curious greyish green colour in her face. She had always been airsick, but there was nothing that could make her miss the opportunity to reach her destination as fast as possible. Even if she had to endure this damn nausea.

Tifa went over to her and knelt down, patting the young ninja slightly on the shoulder. "We're almost there..." she said.

Yuffie snorted. "Easy for you to say... at least, you can get off this ship now..." She took a deep breath in order to not throw up. "If I could I'd rather go with you... but no... I have to return to Wutai... _why_ on Gaia did Cid decide to drop you off first? It's not _you_ who is airsick but _me_... don't get me wrong... but..." Yuffie rolled her eyes and made a strange sound as she held her hand up, covering her mouth.

The older woman patted her sympathetically. "I know... I hope he will head to Wutai next... If you want I could have a word with him when we landed."

The girl shot her a grateful look. "That... would be great."

Right then they felt a rumbling go through the airship as it set on the ground. They had finally arrived on the airfield of Junon. "We're there... I'll go get my things and talk to Cid afterwards, okay?"

Yuffie just nodded, got up and sprinted off. One corner of Tifa's mouth twitched a little as she looked after the retreating form of her young friend. Then she got up herself to get her few belongings.

When she descended the ramp, Yuffie was nowhere to be seen, but the others were all standing there, waiting for her.

Cid pulled her into a tight hug again, whispering into her ear, "Don't forget what I said earlier. Someone gives you a hard time, just give me a call and I will make their lives Hell!" She had to smirk at that.

"I hope we can meet again, someday," Barret spoke up after the pilot had stepped away from her. "And don't let someone get you down." He patted her on the shoulder and shot her a worried look. "Just call me from time to time, yeah?" Tifa nodded.

Vincent stood some steps aside, quietly watching the scene. He had never been too fond of goodbyes.

After a few minutes, Barret and Cid went back inside, leaving just Vincent and Tifa standing in front of the Highwind. They heard someone whistle and turned around. "Reeve!" Tifa exclaimed, walking towards him. She soon noticed that he was not alone, and when she saw who it was that followed Reeve, she stopped dead in her tracks.

As soon as Reeve approached her, he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so glad you could make it," he said when he let go.

Tifa was still staring at the sour looking figure standing a few steps behind Reeve who stared back.

"What the Hell are _you_ doing here?" they both asked in unison.

Vincent raised an eyebrow at this but preferred to stay silent. Just as he almost always did. He looked at Reeve who shifted uncomfortably. He knew they weren't the best of friends, but he had hoped that they could get along... he had not expected that they would want to have a go at each other as soon as they laid eyes on the other one.

"Is that git working with you?" Tifa and Reno wanted to know from Reeve and immediately turned back to glare daggers at each other.

"That horrible person destroyed my _home_!" the brunette growled, pointing at the redhead who just sneered. "And he killed all the people in sector 7! How can you let someone like him work for you?"

Reno snorted despisingly. "You dare accuse me when you just -"

But he wasn't able to finish his sentence, because at that moment, a loud screech could be heard, just before something - or rather someone - flew at the Turk, so that he lost his balance and fell, landing painfully on his butt. "How - dare you - insult her - when you yourself - have more - skeletons in your - closet - than any other person - I - _know_!" Yuffie screamed, hitting Reno on the head after each word she uttered, landing her hardest hit with her last word.

Tifa was too appalled to do something. She just stood there, her mouth agape, staring at them. She had totally forgotten about the young ninja being here.

The only one who still had a grip on himself was Vincent. Seeing that no one else was moving but rather staring at the two of them sitting on the floor, he stepped forward and gripped Yuffie's arm to pull her off Reno, so the redhead could get up.

The Turk got to his feet, silently swearing to himself as he brushed the dirt off his trousers. Then he looked up to the young ninja.

She was struggling to break free of Vincent's firm grip, still wanting to hit Reno even more.

"You filthy little..."

"That's enough!" Tifa called out.

Reeve was totally shocked about what he had just witnessed. Who would have expected something like this? He was at a total loss for words. He looked at Tifa who was shaking with rage and looked as shocked as he was.

"Hey, what's going on?"' Cid asked, coming back out of the airship. "I thought you were onboard," he said to Yuffie. "Come back inside, go!" He took Yuffie's other arm and Vincent let go of her. The pilot gave the ex-Turk a nod, then shoved the ninja into the airship, calling out an order to close the ramp.

Reno was breathing hard and clenched his fists at his sides. He gave Reeve a reproaching look before he turned around and went to where they had come from before, leaving the baffled Tifa and Reeve and the seemingly calm Vincent behind.

* * *

_**A/N:** I have to admit that I had some trouble to end this chapter without a cliffhanger. And I really had much fun when Yuffie hit Reno. XD Please don't get me wrong, I really like Reno, but I think he won't have it too easy from now I hope you guys still like it. And I promise I try to update very soon. :)_


	10. Hurt

_**A/N:** Yeah... finally finished chapter ten! XD I have to admit that this story went a little out of hand... more than I could have hoped for... I really wanted to make this a Vincent Valentine story, but now it seems that it won't be like that... -sighs- well... let's see what I can do about this... but honestly, I think it is more important that this is a good story, even when it is less about Vincent than I originally planned... I adore Vincent, there's nothing about it, but... well... I hope you Vincent Valentine fans out there don't mind about that... XD he will still play a quite important role in the story, I promise... though I don't think he will be the main character before all others... shame on me... -sniff-_

_ Dragon Girl323: No problem XD I think so too, and I know from what you could read until now, it is anything but obvious what Hojo really did with her... I have some ideas, but I still need to work out the details, but it is given that there has to be something special about her, even if some people won't like it... least of all Naomi herself, I think... we'll see... but I'll do my best XD_

_Well... and Tifa would have hit Reno herself, if Yuffie hadn't beaten her to it XD ... and I hope, you update your Reno x Tifa story soon, I want read more of it. XD_

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Opening: _Hurt_ (by _Luna Sea_)

Elena tapped her foot on the ground while Rude was reading the report again. Apparently, he was looking for something they had not seen yet. He was wondering why there was a report at all, because it was definitely not Hojo's style to do something like that. Usually, he remembered everything about his experiments or other things that worth knowing for him. So Rude assumed that someone else had written this report. But he couldn't guess who.

Naomi jumped when they heard a loud bang upstairs, followed by rapid footsteps on the staircase. Seconds later, Reno entered the room with a mad expression on his face.

Rude and Elena exchanged a worried look. It was obvious that the redhead was pissed. But why?

"What's up, Reno?" Elena asked tentatively as he let himself fall onto a chair that cracked suspiciously. At first, she didn't get a reply but had to listen to Reno's muttering. She couldn't understand what he was saying and rolled her eyes.

"I'll kill her..." Reno grumbled after a short while, carefully rubbing his head.

"Kill who?" Rude wanted to know, but the other one didn't answer but continued swearing silently.

They did not find out until Reeve finally came back, accompanied by Vincent Valentine and Tifa Lockheart. Rude swallowed hard at the sight of the brown haired woman and Elena's eyes grew wide. The blonde knew that this Lockheart girl and Reno had never gotten along too good, but that he wanted to kill her now was beyond her. Something must have happened when they'd been absent.

Tifa blinked but regained her composure pretty fast. After seeing Reno she had almost expected the other two Turks to be here, too. She looked from Reno, who glared at the floor, over Rude and Elena, who wore surprised expressions, to a pretty girl she didn't know. She smiled a little, greeting them quietly.

Elena was the one to get over the surprise first. She stood up, shook hands with Tifa and nodded to Vincent. "Looks like we're working together from now on," she said. "I'm really glad that I will have some help from a female." She led the ex-Avalanche member to a chair so she could sit down. Then she looked at Naomi. "Well... this is Naomi Crescent... and this are Tifa Lockheart and Vincent Valentine," she introduced them.

Naomi gave them an insincere smile and Tifa nodded friendly.

"So... why does Reno want to kill you?" Elena asked curiously.

"... not her..." the redhead mumbled.

Elena blinked. "So... who is it, then?" she wanted to know.

Tifa raised an eyebrow. "I think he refers to Yuffie... she hit him before..." she said, then explained in a few words what had happened.

The blonde couldn't suppress a grin. "Too bad I missed that!" she exclaimed.

Reeve cleared his throat and the others looked at him, even Reno. "I hope you don't mind if we could get to business," he said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I think it would be best for now when Elena and Tifa could go shopping with Naomi, so she gets some proper clothing. The rest of us will take care of this test report."

Elena stood up and gripped Naomi's hand. "Let's go! I will explain everything to you when we are outside," she told Tifa who nodded with a slightly confused expression, but didn't want to object.

Once they stepped out of the front door she couldn't hold her curiosity any longer. "So..." she said with a look at Naomi's clothes which looked a lot like Reno's, "could you please tell me what's going on?"

The blonde looked at her. "To be honest... I don't know everything myself. I just know that Reeve wanted us to check the old ShinRa Headquarters the other day, so we did. And there we found this report about some experiment... and her." She indicated Naomi. "No one really knows why she had been there, or how long... from what I understand, someone had experimented on her and left her in a cell on the 67th floor. She doesn't know anyone besides us, since she had been alone for a long time, and doesn't remember anything before the Weapon attack, and after that she had been unconscious until recently."

Tifa looked at Naomi and felt a twinge of pity for her. It surely wasn't easy for her, since she wasn't used to other people being around her.

When they left the sixth or seventh shop hours later, Tifa felt hungry. She wasn't surprised at that, the last time she had eaten something had been the day before... After Cloud's sudden disappearance she had not had much appetite. But now she was distracted, so it slowly came back to her.

"Would you mind if we stop at the restaurant over there?" Elena moaned. "I'm starving!" Without waiting for a response she shifted the bags and went straightly to the restaurant.

Inside, they soon found an unoccupied table at the back. Elena immediately sat down and grabbed a menu. Tifa and Naomi followed suit. Tifa looked at Naomi who seemed a little lost. "What about a mixed plate for three persons?" she suggested. "Since no one knows what Naomi likes, it would be the best possibility to try some things out."

The girl shot her a grateful look. She didn't know what any of those things were, so it would be difficult for her to choose something.

"Tifa, you're the best!" Elena exclaimed, then she waved a hand to call the waiter, so they could order some drings and the mixed plate.

While they waited for the food to get ready they talked a little.

"You know..." the blonde said. "It was never a personal thing when we had to fight you. It's just that, it was our job. Actually, Rude and I do like you... only Reno seems to hold something against you, though I don't really know why. Personally, I think you just hurt his ego, nothing more." Elena pulled a face. "I won't deny that I liked being a Turk, but that doesn't mean that I agreed with everything we had to do. The thing was... it was either you obey or die. You see... I preferred living. But it was quite a short time that I had been a Turk, Rude and Reno had done their jobs for years, you see... but I think you noticed that even Reno didn't do the things he did just because he wanted to."

At that point, their food arrived and they began to eat, Naomi trying everything out while the other two women told her what the respective things were, so next time she would be able to choose for herself what she wanted to eat.

"You all seem to know each other for quite some time," Naomi said when they were finished eating.

Tifa and Elena nodded, then told her how they had met and why it had been difficult before, since they had been on different sides.

"Must be hard," the girl muttered after listening to them. "I don't know if I could fight someone I liked, even if I had to."

The blond Turk weighed her head. "Well... it was hard... but as you can see, we avoided killing each other. But while we are at it..." she addressed Tifa. "How come Reeve asked you and Vincent to help us now? What about the others? I would have thought that you wouldn't do anything without this spikey head, Cloud."

At the mention of her childhood friend's name Tifa felt her eyes tear up. She quickly wiped the tears away before they started to fall again. "Cloud... left..." she said quietly. "I don't know where he went... or why... he just left..." She sniffed and then regained her composure, though her face remained sad. "Barret moves to his hometown Corel, Elmyra and Marlene are going with him. Cid will return to Rocket Town, Yuffie to Wutai... Red XIII has to protect Cosmo Canyon... and as you very well know, Aerith is dead."

Elena gaped at her. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know that..." she apologized and patted Tifa's arm sympathetically.

"It's okay... you couldn't possibly know that..." She heaved a deep sigh. "And as for Vincent and me... Reeve asked me, if I could help him here, since I didn't have anywhere to go anymore, and I agreed. It could do me good, if I have something to distract me. And I knew Vincent had no home, either, so I begged him to come here, too, until he finally agreed." Tifa smiled a little at that. It had not been easy to get Vincent to come with her, but somehow she had managed it.

"Well..." Naomi frowned. She had seen it in Tifa's sad eyes that she'd rather be with this Cloud than anywhere else. "If he doesn't want you near him, he's not worth worrying about him. Just try and forget about that jerk!"

Tifa shot her a confused look, but nodded. "Yeah... maybe it is better... mostly I agreed to help Reeve to get over it."

Elena nodded. "You'd better... okay... enough sad memories... we should go back, before the others think we'd gone missing and search for us," she said and waved her hand again to call the waiter, indicating that they wanted to pay and leave.

* * *

_**A/N:** Fine... I managed to write the whole chapter at work, since it was really dull, and I had nothing else to do. And I can proudly announce that the next chapter will be up pretty soon. I hope you liked this one, though._


	11. death wish

_**A/N:** Yep, for those who guess, I wrote most of this chapter at work too. Since it is Wendnesday, there is not much to do for me, and before I fall to sleep out of boredom, I thought it would be better to continue my story. Well... I don't know what else to say, just that I hope you enjoy the story. I really put a lot of effort into it. And I would love it, if you could tell me your opinion in form of a review... (I know, I'm repeating myself, but I don't care right now XD)_

_Yeah... and please don't take this chapter title **too** seriously XD  
_

* * *

**Chapter 11**

Opening: _death wish_ (by _Gackt_)

Meanwhile, the men were discussing the report Rude had found at the former ShinRa HQ and, of course, Naomi. Vincent and Reeve had been quite shocked about what was written there, Reeve at first more than Vincent, since the ex-Turk was well aware of what Hojo was capable of – though they still doubted that this report was from the madman – for that he had been one of his experiments himself. But upon seeing Naomi's full name, the enigmatic gunman had begun to tremble slightly. Crescent... he knew that name... how could that be?

He really hoped that no one had noticed his reaction on that, he didn't want anyone to know about that.

"Did you know about Hojo breeding people?" Rude asked Vincent, who shook his head. Either, the other ones had ignored the fact that he had been more than shocked about Naomi or they really hadn't noticed.

"No... I never knew he was able to. All I've seen were those Sephiroth 'clones', but they had been normal people before they got infected with Jenova cells, like Cloud."

"So, most likely, Naomi is the only one," Reeve muttered. "Or at least, I hope she is."

"If it really _was_ Hojo who did it..." Rude mused quietly.

"Since this mad scientist is dead, we can't ask him, now, can we?" Reeve objected. "And if it was someone else... well, I think we will found out, huh?"

Reno was the only one who just sat there and listened while the others did the talking. He had read this report twice. So he knew how it was possible that Naomi knew nothing other than being in this cell. She had never seen other places before. This brought his blood to boil. How could Hojo – or someone else – have done something like this! How could anyone be able to do that!

Rude sighed and glanced at his watch. "I'm hungry. I hope the girls will be back soon."

The redhead snorted. "As if. We're talking about _women_ here. Don't expect them to be _quick_ when it comes to shopping!"

Reeve raised an eyebrow. "That's not fair. Tifa is not the kind of person whose happiness depends on something as subtle as this," he said and Vincent who had spent much time in her company with them both having been members of Avalanche, nodded in agreement. "They're doing this for Naomi, not out of fun."

As if being summoned by that, Elena, Tifa and Naomi stepped through the door, heavily packed with several shopping bags.

Reno gave the other men a look that said "I told you", before the women put the bags into a corner and sat down.

"Had fun?" Rude asked casually. He didn't really mind if they had, actually, he'd mind more if they hadn't.

"Not really," Elena said grumpily. "But at least, we've got some decent clothes for Naomi. And we bought something for ourselves, too, in addition to some food."

Reeve looked up. "Now that you mention it... it would be great if we could eat something."

The blonde frowned. "Well, actually, we did at the restaurant. But if you give us a few minutes, we will go upstairs to get changed. After that we could prepare something for you."

The redhead looked frightened. "Please... _don't_ try and cook!" he whined. "I still want to live, at least for a few years!" Before he could say something else, a package of Kleenex hit his nose.

"Watch your mouth, Reno!" Elena warned him. "Or do you want to die right now?" Saying this, she stood up and waved the other two women to follow her. They took the bags and retreated from the room.

"Women!" Reno growled, rubbing his nose. "Why do they all have to hit me?"

Rude grinned at that. "I'd say it's your own fault. Sometimes, it would really be better if you watched your mouth."

"Not you too!"

Vincent rolled his eyes, the redhead was being ridiculous, but he didn't seem to care about that. He was more concerned about his 'pride'. But apparently, he wasn't aware that he'd do much better to keep his mouth shut sometimes. "You should learn when to shut up," he muttered. "Would improve your health."

Reeve smirked, but he was a little worried. He knew that Reno seemed to be lazy and careless, but he was short-tempered, too. When he saw that the redhead grew tense, as if to hit someone, he decided to step in. "Keep it down, guys. I don't want you to have a go at each other... but I have to admit, they do have a point," he said to Reno.

He was glad when Elena peeked into the room, saying that dinner was ready.

Rude left immediately, closely followed by Vincent and Reeve, leaving Reno sitting there, alone.

_T.T_

Rude was the first to enter the dining room, sitting down at the table, eagerly waiting for food. Vincent sat down next to him, not because he was hungry, but he thought it would be good if he ate something for a change. Added to this, he needed to occupy himself right now, as to not think about how Naomi could be linked to Lucrecia...

Reeve arrived some time later, dragging a grumpy looking Reno with him; he had returned to get the Turk when he had noticed that the redhead was staying behind.

Elena came from the kitchen, carrying a large bowl with noodles, then Naomi emerged with some sauce, followed by Tifa bringing salad. Since someone had put plates and forks on the table before, Reeve began giving out food to everyone except the girls, for they had already eaten.

"Who cooked?" Rude wanted to know.

"Tifa. I helped her out," Naomi said. She was glad that Tifa had been kind enought to show her how to make this food, and would do so more often, so she could learn how to cook.

Reno muttered something that sounded like "at least not El", but no one listened to him.

As soon as everyone had their plates filled with food, Reeve, Rude and Vincent began to eat. Since the women had had dinner at the restaurant, they weren't hungry. Otherwise, it was just Reno who glared at his plate, growling under his breath and crossing his arms.

"Don't you want to eat something?" Naomi asked, a little worried.

The redhead frowned. "I don't want anything from _her_." He jerked his head in Tifa's direction. To his misfortune, Elena heard that.

She stepped behind him, a sour expression on her face. "Are you sure?" she asked quietly. Before Reno could reply, she had gripped a fair amount of his red hair, pulling his head back. With her free hand she took a fork, put some noodles on it and began to penetrate his mouth with it.

Eager not to eat anything of this, Reno clenched his teetch, trying to break free from Elena's firm grip on his hair, but to no avail.

"Naomi made this food, too! You would do better to eat that stuff, or do you want to hurt her feelings?" the blonde muttered dangerously.

With that, Reno grabbed the fork, glad that Elena finally let go of him as soon as he did that. Reluctantly, he tasted the food and was surprised at how good it was! He choked on the noodles, he never knew that Tifa was such a good cook. But he'd rather die than admit it.

* * *

_**A/N:** OK... here you are... XD just a little filler until I continue. As I said before, Reno won't have it too easy XD and I really enjoyed writing it, though I think I could have done better... now I have to work out what will happen next, but it won't take too long, hopefully._


	12. Nightmare

_**A/N:** Soo... maybe, I will still be able to get some things like I planned them from the beginning, but of course not all of them, since I have some new ideas every day, and old ones I simply forget... shame on me... but I make that mistake every time, I never make notes to work out a plot, I just memorize the general idea and start writing... no wonder, every story turns out different than I originally planned. -sighs-_

_Bruna Aquino: I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this won't turn out Reno/Elena, I have some other girlfriend for him in store XD but thanks anyway that you like my story, glad to read it :)  
_

* * *

**Chapter 12**

Opening: _Nightmare_ (by _Shazna_)

Darkness was all that surrounded her when she slowly descended the stairs. Though she couldn't see anything, she just felt where she had to go. Otherwise, she would have fallen down long ago. Strange was the fact that she couldn't hear anything, too.

She didn't know where she was, or how long she was here, or even why. It was just that she'd rather be anywhere but here. Wherever 'here' would be.

After some time she suddenly stopped. She thought that she heard something. A voice that sent a chill down her spine. And she couldn't locate where it came from. All she knew was that she didn't like that voice. She slowly sank down onto the stari she was currently standing on, shivering slightly. What was going on?

She had the distinct feeling that it was getting colder with every second, and now she could hear footsteps heading towards her. She pulled her knees to her chest and laid the arms around them, holding her breath when the footsteps stopped directly in front of her. And when she felt a hand touching her shoulder she let out a scream.

Panting heavily, Naomi sat up. What the hell had _that_ been? And where had it come from? Could it be... a memory that was hidden deep inside her, so that she couldn't recall it when she was awake?

It took her a few minutes to calm down. After a while she climbed out of her bed, her nightclothes sticking to her skin, since she was bathed in sweat. She opened the drawer of her bedstand and took out a torch that she lighted immediately.

She had to narrow her eyes because the light wsa a little too bright at first. When her eyes had adjusted to the torch light, she put on a dressing gown and sighed, before she left her room and went downstairs. Her thoughts were still with her strange nightmare, if it had been a dream at all. Maybe, it really had been a memory. But how could she know?

Arriving on the first floor, she entered the kitchen.

There, at the windowsill, stood a tall shadow that seemed to have wings or something like that. Naomi gasped in shock and stepped backwards, when the figure turned around with a swooshing sound and looking like an oversized bat.

With a loud clunk, the torch fell to the floor. She thought that she was still dreaming. At least, it felt like it.

She let out another gasp when she couldn't step further and had to stop at the wall. Shivering, she pressed herself against the wall, her eyes watering. She could hear her own heartbeat and her body felt numb. The light began to flicker, which intensified her fear even more. Mostly when the dark figure floated over to her.

A scream tried to escape her, but she was way too afraid to let it loose.

Few seconds later the kitchen light went on and she had to close her eyes, because it blinded her. The tall shadow, or whatever it was, laid a hand over her mouth to pretend her from screaming. She swallowed hard and her breathing became ragged as she slowly slided down the wall.

"Promise you won't scream," someone said. Naomi jerked in surprise, which caused the other one to tighten his grip on her mouth. She knew that voice, it was pretty familiar. But in her panic she wasn't able to associate it with a face.

Little by little, her breath became more regular, and realizing that the other one wasn't about to hurt her, she relaxed somewhat. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked in order to get used to the light. When she saw who was kneeling in front of her, she made a surprised noise. She grabbed his hand and took it from her mouth. "Vincent!" she whispered. "What are you doing here? I thought you were sleeping, you almost scared me to death!"

"I'm sorry," he replied flatly in his usual low voice. "That was not my intention."

Naomi rolled her eyes at that. "You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"I couldn't sleep."

He stood up and stretched a hand out, she took it and let herself being dragged up from the floor. She carefully brushed the dust off her dressing gown and adjusted it... she was glad that she wore a long night dress beneath. Shooting Vincent a sideways glance, she crossed the kitchen, took a glass out of the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. After drinking it, she refilled the glass, but before emptying it again, she turned to Vincent. "Do you want to drink something?"

He still stood rooted to the spot, he hadn't moved an inch since he helped her get up, and looked at her. He didn't say anything, he just shook his head.

Naomi sighed and sat down at the table, putting her glass in front of her. With her sleeve she wiped the sweat off her face and looked at the table top.

"I assume, you couldn't sleep, too?" Vincent wanted to know before sitting down beside her, still looking at her. His face betrayed neither any thought nor an emotion, it was just blank. But his eyes seemed to be a little darker than before, though she couldn't be too sure about that, since she hadn't seen very much of him.

"Actually, I could... but I woke up just before I came down here," she said, her voice shaking slightly.

"Nightmare?"

Naomi nodded. "Yeah... but I don't remember all of it. Just the darkness, I went down some stairs... and a scary voice, but I don't know what it said... and that's it..."

Vincent didn't drop his gaze when she looked into his dark red eyes. Neither of them spoke for a long time. "Nightmares seem to be standard," the ex-Turk finally noted.

She blinked in confusion. "What do you mean by that – standard? Do you want to tell me that I will have those every night?" Furrowing her brow, she shuddered at the thought that this voice would always follow her.

Weighing his head, Vincent clicked his tongue. "I'm not sure... but I had plenty of them... and I know, Cloud had them, too."

Naomi still didn't know what he was getting at. Sure, she understood very well what he said, but she didn't get the meaning behind these words. Did that mean that they had something in common other people didn't have? And that Cloud... wasn't that the guy Tifa and Elena had been talking about earlier? The name sounded a little familiar.

Vincent noticed the growing confusion on the girl's face. "Did anyone explain anything to you?" he asked.

The girl ran a hand through her long tangled hair. "Not really... I only recall that I woke up in that cell... and then Reno finding me there. When he had brought me to his companion, I saw that... report... with the same specification that had been at the wall in my cell... and the name Naomi Crescent... From what I gather I had been some experiment to someone... but that's all..."

The ex-Turk flinched when she said the name. He didn't want to, but couldn't suppress it.

Naomi noticed it. "Is something wrong with that name?" she asked curiously.

"No..." he muttered. "I just heard it before... but that's not the point now..."

She frowned at him, but didn't want to ask him about that now, for that he obviously didn't want to talk about it. But she wouldn't forget about it, she would surely find out what it was with her name.

Vincent arched an eyebrow. "So... you don't know anything about yourself?" He wasn't too surprised, though. The report had said that Naomi had been created not too long ago, before being put in that cell. He heaved a long sigh before he quietly began to explain why he himself had those nightmares, and what he had meant by his statement about those dreams earlier. He was careful, though, not to mention too much about Lucrecia, since he didn't want Naomi to feel uncomfortable about things she wasn't responsible for.

* * *

_**A/N:** I hate this chapter... really... partly because it was so hard to write, I had some things spinning in my head but couldn't find the right words to describe it. And I don't really think that I got it quite angsty and it is way too short. Maybe I will rewrite it one time, just to make it better. I hope the next chapter will be easier, so I can get it up before my birthday on Tuesday._

_OK...and... I've got four pairings planned for this story, though I'm not sure, I can get 'em all here... I will concentrate on two pairings first... since I've got too many ideas, and I don't think I'm able to put all of them here, I think I will get some side stories to this, so I won't have to skip too often._


	13. Numb

_**A/N:** Okay... since I've already got my nightmare chapter (believe me, it was a nightmare to write it ) I think I can continue better... I'm still working out the details, and I try to pair up some characters quite soon, I think. But I'm not really sure about that, we will have to see what I can make out of this._

_I think I took a little too much away in my note for the first chapter. So, before anyone asks me, Reno is not in love with Naomi. Since he rescued her, he may like her, but she is more like a sister to him, which he thinks he has to take care of._

_Dragon Girl323: Sure, I like it XD and I'm really glad that at least one person likes the previous chapter... seems like there are not many people who read the story anymore, anyway -.- and thanks, but my birthday is not until next week on Tuesday XD  
_

* * *

**Chapter 13**

Opening: _Numb_ (by _Linkin Park_)

"So, you know way better how it feels to be experimented on than I do... I never registered anything, for I haven't been awake then... maybe not even alive..." Naomi said with a strange expression that Vincent couldn't interpret.

"Maybe," he retorted. "But... believe me, no one does understand you as much as I do."

"And he really placed those demons inside you?" she asked incredulously and looked at him wide-eyed when he just nodded.

Neither Vincent nor Naomi saw that the sun was slowly rising outside, since they had turned their backs to the window and the kitchen light was turned on. They've been talking for hours now, and time just went by unnoticed. The first sign on how much time had passed was when Reno entered the kitchen with a grumpy look.

They stopped their conversation and looked at him in surprise, then both turned to take a look out of the window.

"Don't you think it's still too early to be chatting away in the kitchen?" the redhead muttered. Then he took a closer look at Naomi and saw that she was still in her night clothes. "What is it? Did you even sleep last night?"

The girl shot him a questioning look. "Well... I did... but I had a nightmare... so I went down here and met Vincent. We've been talking ever since," she responded.

Reno frowned. "A nightmare, huh?" He looked at Vincent. He knew from the enigmatic gunman that he had those, too, so he assumed that it was just normal for people who had been experimented on to have nightmares. He didn't like it, though. He was glad that he had never had much to do with Hojo. Just when he had met him for business.

Since the redhead was here now, Vincent felt a little out of place, though he didn't know why. Reno had been the one who found her, he was the first person she'd ever seen. He stood up and left the room without saying anything.

Naomi blinked in confusion. "What's up with him, all of a sudden?" she wondered. She couldn't understand why he had left, until now they had been getting along pretty well and she had enjoyed the conversation with him, despite some topics they had been talking about. Before, she had thought that he wasn't very talkative but had been proved wrong.

Reno just shrugged. "He's not really the social guy, I think. Maybe he got uncomfortable, since I'm here," he guessed. "And you are okay now?" he wanted to know.

She nodded. "Sure... we've been talking for at least three or four hours, I feel a lot better now than I did when I woke up. But I'm getting a little hungry. I think, I will make some breakfast."

Before she could even move, the redhead began to search the cupboards, finally getting a frying pan and placing it on the hearth. He went to the fridge, took out some eggs and bacon and began cooking some breakfast.

After stirring in the pan for some minutes, he took two plates out of the cupboards and filled them both with the food, before putting one in front of Naomi and the other one at the place on the other side of the table. He got some forks for both of them, handed one to the girl and sat down.

"Why, thanks..." she muttered surprised. "But there was not need for you to cook for me... I could have done it myself."

"Think nothing of it," he waved it off. "Next time it is your turn, then." One corner of his mouth curved up into a half-smirk.

They ate in silence, then Naomi got up and put the plates and forks into the sink, washing them up. Reno got a dish towel and dried everything they had used, before he put everything where he had got it from.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to take a shower," Naomi said.

Reno nodded. "What if I'd show you around in town, later?" he suggested. "I don't think you saw too much yesterday, when you were shopping."

"That would be great!" With a bright smile on her face she turned and left the kitchen to go upstairs and take a shower.

The redhead used the waiting time to prepare some coffee before he got himself a cup and filled it with the hot black liquid and sat down at the table, blowing into the mug so he wouldn't burn his tongue. He looked up when he heard footsteps descending the staircase. Thinking it was Naomi, he went to the cupboard to take out another mug. Maybe she wanted some coffee, too.

The footsteps stopped at the door frame and he turned around. It wasn't Naomi after all, standing there looking at him with narrowed eyes and a frown, but Tifa.

"What are you doing here?" she growled at him. "It's only seven o'clock, I thought you were still sleeping!"

"I can use the kitchen whenever I want to!" Reno retorted. "I don't have to ask for your permission!"

Tifa's expression grew a little darker. She slowly went up to him, looking dangerously at him. "I didn't say you had to, I just didn't expect…"

Reno snorted. "Hold that for someone else, Lockheart!" he spat at her. "Maybe for your little oddball Strife. I think, he'd like being bossed around."

But the last comment had been too much. He knew he'd crossed the line, but wasn't willing to take it back or even apologize. Tears filled the brunette's eyes and slowly, one fell down on her cheek. She clenched her teeth. "What did you just say?" she said in a deadly whisper.

Reno looked at her, thunderstruck, he had not expected to actually _cry_ after his last comment. He'd thought she would be upset, maybe even angry, but _crying_? "Well…" He didn't know what to say and felt awkward. This wasn't just his type of thing. He held his hands up in front of him, but he regretted it as soon as he did it, for this was the moment when Tifa raised her hand, balled it into a fist and stroke. He felt dizzy when her fist made contact with his chin, and he stumbled a little and knocked on the countertop.

Slowly, he slid down to the floor, gasping for air, since the crash had knocked the breath out of his lungs. Tifa glared at him for a few seconds, then turned around and left the kitchen, sniffing silently. Reno ran a hand through his hair, slightly panting, closing his eyes and hoping that the pain in his back would ease soon.

When he heard footsteps again, he went rigid. He thought that Tifa was on her way back to hit him some more, but when he heard a shocked gasp, he knew it was Naomi.

"What happened?" she wanted to know and knelt down in front of him. "You okay?"

Reno took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm okay…" he murmured while the girl helped him get up. "Just got what I deserved, I think." He didn't elaborate what had happened. He'd never admit that he was sorry about what he had said to Tifa, and that he was wondering why she had been crying. Whereas, he won't ever ask her about that, too. "Ready?" he asked Naomi.

She looked at him as if he was mad. "And what about you?"

"I'll be fine, let's go!"

Reluctantly, she nodded and they left.

_T.T_

Vincent sat in his room, thinking about what Naomi had told him about her nightmare. He wasn't too sure about it, but he thought that it was the influence of the Jenova cells Hojo had injected her. At least, it wouldn't be a surprise. When he looked out of the window, he saw Reno and Naomi leaving for town.

* * *

_**A/N:** Yeah... I actually enjoyed myself when Tifa punched Reno XD she was supposed to do that way earlier, but after Yuffie had been pounding on him, this had to wait until now. I have to admit it, I somehow pity Reno a little bit, but it's his own fault that he gets hit that often by the women XD except Naomi... she just had no reason to hit him, yet. XD_


	14. Private Laughter

_**A/N:** Well... I'm really sorry it took me so long to update this time... but I had otitis media... and it just had to be on my birthday... but for that... I don't like to spend too much time on my computer when I'm sick... welll... I prefer lying on the sofa then, reading a book... or something else... XD but I couldn't waste my time there, so there you are... I just had to continue this before I lose it... -.- though it is really short this time...  
Besides... I began to write a prequel to this story, about Hojo... I hope I can finish it soon, so I can return my full attention to this one here...  
_

* * *

**Chapter 14**

Opening: _Private Laughter_ (by _Bonnie Pink_)

Reno and Naomi crossed the street and passed a small gift shop. The redhead stopped in front of the tiny store, just to look at the window and the layouts there. Naomi didn't notice it at first and when she did, it was too late, so she ran into him, sending both of them to the ground. Reno fell onto his knees and grazed his hands as he stretched them out to break his fall. Naomi fell down next to him, landing hard on her side. She looked at him, her eyes widened, while Reno pushed himself into a sitting position and helped her sit up, too.

"Now you're starting to hit me, too, huh?" he muttered and examined his hands. There were just a few scratches, nothing to worry about, this would heal really soon, regarding that he was a Turk after all. He stood up and pulled Naomi to her feet. "You okay?"

"I'm sorry…" she said in a low whisper. "I just…" She didn't know what to say, but when she saw that Reno grinned at her, indicating that he hadn't been serious about his comment about her hitting him, she shrugged indifferently. "Didn't mean to do any harm."

"I know," the redhead retorted, still smirking widely. He ruffled through her hair and then turned to the gift shop before opening the door and entering.

Naomi followed him immediately, not wanting to be left alone in a town she didn't know. This was only the second time she was here, for that they had been driving in a truck when they'd arrived here after leaving Midgar in a helicopter. Just when the door shut close behind her, she began to brush some dust off her new light blue sleeveless shirt and white jeans. Then she looked around in awe, seeing many things she'd never seen before.

Part of her long chestnut hair fell in light waves over her shoulders.

Reno had his back turned to her, searching the various items, though he didn't really know what he was actually looking for. There were some thing he just glanced at, but many things he thought worth to be examined closer. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't realize that Naomi was a little way off. He had already picked some things and wanted to pay for them when he heard an unpleasant voice just behind him.

"Yo, sweetie. What is a beautiful young woman like you doing all alone in a dirty town like this?"

"What makes you think I'm alone?" Naomi retorted.

Reno stiffened, but didn't turn around just yet, hoping the guy would leave her alone before he had to beat him up.

"Well, I don't see anyone worth belonging to you here," came a second voice that didn't sound any better than the first one.

"But I do."

"What… you pretend not being alone, so that we will go away, huh? Not very nice…"

"You don't really think _you_ are worth being with me?" Her voice sounded like she was very amused, at least not frightened at all. It seemed like she wasn't worried about those guys hurting her in any way.

One of the guys snorted. "Sure… but, don't you care that your beauty has just captivated me?"

"Well… should I?"

Reno paid for the items he wanted to buy and stuffed them into the pockets of his jacket.

"You'd better."

"What are you trying to get at?" came the confused reply from Naomi, just when Reno turned around to see her cornered by two tall unshaved and unkempt guys, one with black hair, the other one dirty blond. They were bigger than himself, but they molested Naomi and he was a Turk, so he couldn't care less.

"Oy, what do you think you're doing here?" the redhead requested, stepping behind the blokes.

The dark haired one turned around to him, frowning. "And you are?"

"None of your business, but it would improve your health if you left my girl alone!"

"Your girl, huh?" the guy said with a cocky attitude. "Then let's see if you're not just talking, eh?"

But before he could do anything, he heard the other guy gasp and turned back.

Reno's eyes grew wide as he looked at the scene in front of him. Naomi had grasped her throat, falling onto one of her knees. The other hand was balled into a fist and she was shaking terribly. Since she had lowered her head to the ground, he couldn't see her face. And then, with a strange tone in her voice, she whispered something he didn't understand. Worry and uneasiness growing inside him, he hesitated before he stepped forward.

The other two guys, however, backed away from her. "She's mad…" one of them said in a disgusted tone. "Let's get away, I don't want to have anything to do with someone like that," he told the other one and made his way out of the shop, not waiting for his companion to follow him.

Right after the door shut close behind the blokes, Reno knelt down in front of Naomi, wondering what was wrong with her. She didn't tilt her head at first, and so it took him a while until he finally realized that she was actually shaking with laughter than anything else. Bewildered, he looked at her as if she had lost her mind just now. His worries melted away and were slowly replaced by irritation.

"Did you… see their faces?" Naomi barely managed to say before another fit of laughter caught her. She fell back onto her butt and wrapped her arms around her upper body.

Reno didn't know what to do and frowned at her. He had been really worried about her, but all she had been doing was… a joke… After a while he stood up and waited for Naomi to finish her laughing attack, then helped her get up.

Still breaking into giggles she turned to the door. "Let's go…"

* * *

_**A/N:** Well... this chapter was rather hard to finish... I had some ideas how to write it, and it was not easy to choose one of them... phew... I really hope the next one will be easier... and I think that 'Genome Control' is finished soon, too. Hopefully._

_And I know, I wanted to add the dreadful thing Hojo did to her, sooner, and I already figured some things out, but it was way too early to add them in the story, though. So we will have to see to that later on. I really do hope that there are still some people reading this. And those who do, please be kind and tell me what you think about it, ok?_


	15. Awaking Bud

_**A/N:** OK... let's forget about 'Genome Control' for a while until I get it done... T.T I'm just glad that I was able to finish this chapter... at long last... I'm really sorry that it took so long..._

_Still hope you like it.  
_

* * *

**Chapter 15**

Opening: _Awaking Bud_ (by _Kirito_)

Vincent had been sitting in his room for about three hours when someone knocked on his door. Unwillingly, he pulled himself out of his reverie, but knowing that his thoughts would lead him nowhere. He stood up and went to answer the door.

Tifa smiled shyly at him. She knew that he liked to be alone, but she had been worried. She hadn't seen him since the evening before. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

The enigmatic gunman was surprised. He considered her for a few seconds before he nodded. Then he stepped aside, indicating that she may come in. "Did you just want to ask me if I was alright? Or is there something else?" he wanted to know.

"Actually…" Tifa began as she entered the room, "I needed someone to talk to."

Vincent blinked. Someone to talk to…? So, why on Earth did she choose him?

The brunette stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face him. "I know what you are thinking… you want to know why I wanted to talk to you of all people. Am I right?" she said, smiling slightly. But this wasn't a happy smile, but a sad one.

He just looked at her for a short time, then nodded. "I won't deny that…" he replied. "Please, sit down."

Tifa looked around before she sat on a chair that stood in front of a small table near the door. Since there was just one, Vincent leant against the wall, silently watching her. He was not the kind of person to talk much, and he usually avoided to address people himself, if he could help it. So he just waited for the young woman to start.

For some minutes, there was just silence. Tifa knew, Vincent wasn't the talkative type and not sociable. But she had not known to whom she could have talked otherwise. Who else, if not Vincent, would understand her?

The seconds slowly ticked by with both of them remaining silent. The brunette didn't know where to start. And she knew Vincent wouldn't do it.

"So…" the gunman finally said. "What is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Well…" Tifa was surprised. She'd never expected him to address her. "It's just…"

"Is it about Cloud?" he asked.

She blushed a little, then nodded. "Yes… it's…"

"Don't," was all he replied.

"Huh?" Tifa was perplexed. "What do you mean?"

Vincent put some strands of his raven black hair back before he turned his blood red eyes on her. "Don't rely on him too much…" he muttered. "It only causes you trouble."

She blinked in surprise. "I don't mean to…" she whispered. "I just don't know what to do."

"I cannot tell you," he replied. "But it would be better for you if you got over him soon. Otherwise, you will reach the point where you cannot recover. Do you want that?"

"No…" Tifa bowed her head. "Of course not."

"Then don't." He narrowed his eyes a little. "You will find someone who is worth your attention. But it's not him."

"And what about you?" she wanted to know. "Did you…"

Vincent shook his head so that his long black hair fell over his shoulders. "It took me a long time to get over Lucrecia. Until recently. It almost destroyed me. That's why I can tell you this."

"Hm." For some time she thought about what he had said. "I know… I shouldn't… but…"

"I know it's not easy. This kind of stuff is always hard. But you will be okay, I'm sure."

"Do you really think so?"

Vincent nodded. "I do."

Tifa wanted to reply, but then there was a loud call downstairs, addressing her. Elena seemed to need her help. She sighed. What was it this time?

"I think it would be better to go," Vincent stated with a hint of amusement in his voice. "I don't want to know what she would think about you being here with me…"

The brunette couldn't help but grin. "Yeah… she might think there's something going on…" she giggled. "Well… thank you for your time and your advice…" she finally said. She stood up. "See you around." With that, she left the room, smiling at him.

As soon as the door shut close behind her, the enigmatic gunman went back to his original spot at the window and continued looking out. Seemingly, he had finally begun to recover a little bit. Though he was a little surprised at that. There had been a time when he'd thought that he would never get over losing Lucrecia to Hojo.

He knew it was ridiculous, there had never been anything he could have done about it when she had agreed to be experimented on by the madman. And slowly, bit by bit, he managed to accept it.

He just hoped Tifa wouldn't make the same mistake. She was way too kind to crack under Cloud's ignorance of her feelings.

* * *

_**A/N:** Yeah... I know it is way too short... but there was nothing more I could write for this chapter... I'm really sorry._


	16. Go mad emotion

_**A/N:** Yay! And the next chapter... (sigh) Since the last one has been serious, I wanted to add one that's a little more fun. Not like chapter 13 at all, but not like the previous or chapter 12, either. When the plot deepens it will be dark and serious enough, so I can lift the mood a little, before. Or so I hoped..._

_This one is a little split up, too. There are different scenes and I hope that it is not too... confusing. _

_Dragon Girl323: I'm really sorry it took me so long to update... The pairings will have to wait some time longer... I'm just preparing everything to make them up. XD So.. when I think it is all right, you'll see... But first, I'm working out what Hojo really did to Naomi, but I don't think you will have to wait that long for that... not as long as for the pairings, at least... XD  
_

* * *

**Chapter 16**

Opening: _Go mad emotion_ (by _Camino_)

Tifa was shocked when she stepped into the kitchen. It looked like Elena had tried to cook for herself, after she hadn't been able to find Tifa. But all she had been able to do was turn the kitchen into a real mess. The blonde was sitting on the floor, looking really distressed. When she set her eyes on the brunette, she stood up, desperately pleading for help.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to… I just wanted…"

"It's okay…" Tifa replied soothingly. "I think I can fix that."

"Really?" Elena sniffed. Sighing, she bowed her head. "Okay, then let me help, at least."

_T.T _

Naomi was in a pretty good mood when they returned. Reno was glad about it; he opened the door and led her to the kitchen. He hoped that lunch would be ready by now, he was quite hungry. When he entered, however, he stopped dead in his tracks, causing Naomi to bump into him.

"Ow…" she murmured. "What's up?"

"What the Hell happened here?" the redhead whispered.

The whole kitchen was a mess. It looked like someone had emptied most of the cupboards and strewn the contents on the floor.

"Dare say something and you're dead!"

Blinking in surprise, Reno looked at Elena who squatted on the floor, glaring at him. She didn't need to say any more for him to understand what was going on. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Tifa silently picking up some things and putting them on the table. The redhead frowned.

"What is it?" Naomi wanted to know and looked wide-eyed into the kitchen. Gasping, she clapped a hand over her mouth.

That was too much for Elena. Muttering darkly, she stood up and rushed past them and then hurried upstairs, now swearing loudly.

Still remembering the incident in the morning, Reno didn't say anything as he carefully crossed the kitchen and began to help Tifa cleaning up. Naomi followed him. The whole time while they were busy no one spoke or even looked up from what they were doing.

When they were finished, Tifa sighed and finally glanced up at Reno. "Thanks…" she muttered. Just because she was mad at the redhead didn't mean she was not grateful for his help.

"No problem," Naomi replied cheerfully. "If you don't mind, I'll go and take a shower now."

Reno and Tifa nodded. "Go ahead," the brunette said, smiling at her.

After the girl had left the room, Reno stood up and brushed some dirt off his clothes. "Well…" he said slowly, before turning to Tifa. "About this morning…" He felt silly, saying this now. But he knew there was no turning back. He got a small package out of his pocket and held it out to her. "I just… I… I'm sorry."

He just stood there, awkwardly waiting for some reaction. This was stupid. There was no need for him to apologize, she should be the one saying sorry. She had been the one punching _him_, not the other way around.

Blinking in confusion, Tifa looked at him, not knowing what to do or say. She would never have thought that Reno of all people would be able to apologize for something. But… she had also been surprised when he had helped her clean the kitchen.

Just when the redhead thought she wouldn't accept it, the brunette stepped forward, cautiously taking the package from his hands.

Tifa tilted her head a little. "It's okay…" she whispered. "But, this…"

"Think nothing of it," Reno said harshly, this whole situation was quite embarrassing. "Just don't let Elena help you cooking." With that, he left the kitchen and went upstairs, heading to his own room.

Still a little confused, Tifa shrugged and put the package into a drawer before she began to prepare lunch.

_T.T _

Meanwhile, Naomi stepped into the shower and turned the water as hot as she could stand. For some time she just stood there, her arms wrapped around her body. Then, suddenly, she took the shower gel and a hard sponge, beginning to scrub her skin violently.

Ever since the incident with those idiots in the gift shop, she felt dirty. And she wanted to wash this off. Even though she didn't know if it was possible. But when she just _felt_ cleaner… it would help.

The others had been thinking she was mad. She had made Reno believe that she had just been acting.

He would never know that it had been really painful for her. To feel something that wanted to come out of her. To hold it back. She didn't really know what it was… she just knew that it was still there… hiding. Waiting to break free.

Maybe she should ask Vincent if she could do something about it.

_T.T _

"Oy!" Rude called out as he opened the door to Reno's room. "Lunch is ready!"

The redhead just waved a hand at him. "I'm coming!" Sighing, he got up from his bed. All the time since he had come up here he had been wondering how Tifa would react, once seeing his gift.

He felt awkward going down now. Suddenly, he wished he hadn't given it to her. It was just… ridiculous.

If he weren't that hungry, and even curious about Tifa's reaction on the gift, he wouldn't even go downstairs. To be honest, he was a little afraid of looking at her right now. Considering their encounters in the kitchen… when she had punched him… and when he had apologized before… he had never felt so lost.

But Naomi would surely miss him. Thinking about this, he felt better.

* * *

_**A/N:** Short chapter again... I know... maybe the next one will be a little longer... I hope..._


	17. Don't tell me

_**A/N:** Yay... here we go again... XD_

_I have to say that I really pity Reno... but I think he deserves what he gets. Sometimes he really should shut his mouth, or at least think before he says something. Would be much healthier for him. XD_

_And there will be no pairings yet, because there's no way to pair them up after just two or three days. So I fear you will have to wait a little longer. ;)__  
_

* * *

**Chapter 17**

Opening: _Don't tell me_ (by _Avril Lavigne_)

Reluctantly, Reno descended the stairs, slowly following Rude into the dining room. He looked around and saw that only Tifa was there. No sight of the others. Neither Reeve, Vincent, Elena or Naomi. The redhead raised an eyebrow. Though he would have felt uncomfortable either way, he had not expected the brunette to be the only one here.

Seeing his dark facial expression, Tifa frowned. "If you don't like my cooking, go and eat elsewhere…" she muttered. "No one makes you eat my stuff." She folded her arms while sitting down.

Reno growled under his breath. "I never said I disliked your cooking, I was just wondering where the others are."

Without saying anything, Rude turned around and left the room to get the others, leaving Tifa and Reno by themselves. The Turk pulled a face as he sat down. He really had hoped that someone else would be here, so he wouldn't have to be alone with the brunette. He didn't hate her… it was just that he felt uneasy whenever he was around her. Besides, she really seemed to hate _him_.

While Tifa carefully tried not to look at him and occupied herself with examining the plate in front of her, he looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, but couldn't find anything unusual. Had she opened the package but didn't want what was inside? Before he could ask her she addressed him.

"Just because I accepted your apology earlier doesn't mean that I'll forgive you."

"Huh?" Reno blinked. "Forgive…?" It took him some time to understand what she meant. "Well… I never asked you to, did I?"

She looked at him, hard. "Do you even care?" she hissed.

"Care about what?" he shot back.

"About the people you killed back then… in sector 7!"

"Ah… we're back there… why don't you just give it a rest? It was just a _job_! Do you think I did it because I wanted to?" Reno leant back, incredulously looking at her. How could she possibly think something like that?

"You could have said _no_!" Tifa said, practically fuming now.

"And what about yourself?" he demanded furiously. "How many people did _you_ kill? When you blew up the reactor in sector 1, for instance?"

"That was something completely different…" the brunette replied, now quite defensive. "We wanted to…"

"Save the planet?" Reno snorted. "Yeah… you think this excuses that you killed all the people in that sector? For nothing? Did it save _anything_?" His anger was rising more and more. How could she possibly accuse him of these things when she was not any better! This was beyond him, and to be honest, he didn't even _want_ to understand it. Because it didn't make any sense. At least, not to him.

"I never said that all I did was correct… but at least, I didn't destroy _your_ home, like you did mine!" she objected.

"Do you think it was _fun_ to do that? Do you _really_ think that I actually knew that your home had been there? All I knew back than was that the Avalanche hideout had been there, and my order was just to destroy this." Reno hid his face in his hands. "Did you really expect me to _enjoy_ such things?"

At this point, Tifa was at a total loss for words. She had always thought that the Turk could care less what happened to others.

"So… next time _think_ before you attack people," Reno continued without even looking at her. "By the way… I just apologized for this morning, not for everything I did."

He was not sure if he was glad about it that Rude returned with Reeve and Vincent at this moment.

The enigmatic gunman looked from Tifa to Reno and back. He sensed that something had happened here, but he didn't want to mention it, in case that one of those two would vent their frustration on him.

* * *

_**A/N:** I know... this is too short... but since I've got pretty much ideas but couldn't use them in this chapter, I needed to cut it quite short, so I could start to write the next one, which will be quite longer, I promise. Besides... I didn't know what else to write here..._


	18. Surprise

_**A/N:** OK... now I finally wanted to push the plot a little forward. And I'm really glad that there are still people who like this story. XD  
_

* * *

**Chapter 18**

Opening: _Surprise_ (by _Flow_)

The next few days passed without anything special happening. Most of the time, Tifa and Reno were avoiding each other, but when they eventually met, they got along fairly well… at least better than in the beginning, though it seemed kind of forced.

Reno was sitting in his room, staring out of the window. He was getting pretty bored. He wanted something to do really soon. Otherwise, he would have to tell Reeve that he was sorry and leave. So it would be better if something happened soon. To be honest, he didn't want to abandon Reeve. He really didn't. But he would do that, if he had no other choice.

A knock at the door pulled him out of his reverie.

"Who is it?" he wanted to know. He didn't expect anyone to come here. Rude had seen him earlier, and a look at his watch told him that there were still some hours until lunch. So, who could it be?

The door opened and Reeve peeked inside. "Are you busy at the moment?" he asked.

"You kidding?" Reno snorted. "I've been aching to do something for days, I'm bored."

"Sorry…" Reeve said. "But I needed to sort some things out. Want to go on a mission?"

His eyes sparkling, the redhead jumped to his feet. Maybe this was a coincidence, maybe Reeve could read minds… but no matter what, this was just great! Finally, he could do something. He wouldn't have to sit around any longer. Though Elena always said he was lazy as Hell – and sometimes, he really was – he was still willing to work.

"Where are we going?" he asked Reeve as he reached the door.

The other one couldn't suppress a grin as he stepped back. "Midgar," he said, then became serious again. "I've heard of increased monster attacks in the outskirts of sector 5."

Reno stopped dead in his tracks. "There are still people there?" he whispered, quite shocked.

Reeve shrugged uncomfortably. "Well… there hadn't been quite enough time to evacuate the whole town when Meteor approached. You know, the city is pretty huge."

The redhead sighed. "Whatever… As long as they're still alive, it's fine with me."

Without discussing this matter further, both men descended the stairs. As they passed the second floor, Reno stopped again. He wasn't too sure if he heard correctly, but to him, it seemed like there was someone crying in one of the rooms.

Reeve stopped, too. "What is it?" he wanted to know.

"There's someone crying…"

Promptly, Reeve's face turned sad. "Tifa…" he whispered. "She still didn't get over it…" He sighed, then went on.

Reno followed him quickly. "What do you mean by that?" he demanded.

"Cloud," the other one replied without looking at him.

"What did he do?"

"He left her… without saying anything to her…" Reeve stopped and caused Reno to bump into him. "Not that they've ever been a couple or anything…" he continued, "but… you know… it's still hard for her…"

The redhead looked thunderstruck. Now he finally understood why Tifa had been crying on that day when she had knocked him down in the kitchen. But he could understand why she hadn't told him about that. It was not his business. But since they had to work together now, it would have been better, if she at least told him where his boundaries lay before he crossed them.

"Come on… let's go…" Reeve said. "The others are waiting for us."

_T.T_

When Tifa stepped out of the bathroom, she felt a little better than before. She hated the worn-out feeling after crying. She opened her wardrobe and took out some casual grey baggy pants and a black v-neck shirt. While she dressed, she thought about what she could make for lunch.

She opened the drawer of her bedstand, looking for her earrings. While she was searching, she saw a light blue package between all her things. The first moment she didn't know how it could be there, but then she remembered that it was the gift Reno had given her when he had apologized to her a few days ago, before they had had that argument about sector 7.

She had completely forgotten about it.

She sat down on her bed and looked at it, holding the package in both hands. She had never bothered to open it, because she had still been a little mad at Reno. But when she thought about it now… she wanted to know what it was.

Tifa really was curious… but somehow, she was a little afraid to open it, too.

After she had considered it for a few moments, she finally decided to do it. There was nothing to lose, now, was there?

Her fingers shaking slightly, she slowly unwrapped the paper and opened the package. Inside was a thin necklace and the pendant looked like a tear drop. It fit perfectly with her favourite earrings.

Tentatively, she tried it on, then searched for her earrings. When she was finally ready, she looked into the mirror. It looked really good, the necklace suited her. She was really baffled that the redhead had bought something that she liked, how could he have known? She needed to go and thank him for that.

Now she still didn't know what she should make for lunch… but she would worry about that when she got downstairs. Maybe she could ask the others what they wanted to eat, that would be far easier.

* * *

_**A/N:** Somehow, I seem to write too short chapters, lately. I'm so sorry! I hope next time I'll do better... But I couldn't let you wait for too long, ne... XD_


	19. Ray

_**A/N:** Well... this chapter seems a little out of line... but actually, this is one that I like better... I'll definitely get back to Reno, Tifa and the others... but this one here is... well... XD shrugs I needed to write it.__  
_

* * *

**Chapter 19**

Opening: _Ray_ (by _Gazette_)

The church looked exactly like it had done when he had been here for the first time. It seemed like an eternity since they had met here. Though it had actually been just a few months. It was unbelievable. Even the flowers were still here.

Carefully, he stepped in front of the flower patch that mysteriously grew on the floor of this church; the only one in the whole town. It sure was a mystery. But somehow, it wasn't really. Aerith had spent much time here, she loved flowers… and she had been an Ancient. Maybe this was the reason why there could be flowers here.

Cloud sighed. Aerith… it had been too long since she had died. But she had said that they would see each other again.

He had really hoped to find her here.

Sinking to his knees, he felt his eyes water. Would he ever find her? Would he ever see her again? There were so many questions he still wanted to ask her, so many answers she hadn't given him when she had still been alive.

"What should I do?" he wondered loudly.

For some time, he just knelt there, praying that he would find her, somehow, some time.

"Please… why did you leave me?" he whispered hoarsely.

Cloud didn't know how long he had been there, kneeling and crying silently. But suddenly, one of the flowers emitted an eerie light. Soft though it was at first, it grew brighter. Blinking in confusion, he looked up. Somehow, this light felt familiar. It felt like… Aerith. But how could that be? She was dead, for Heaven's sake!

But was she really? Just because Sephiroth had killed her body didn't mean that her soul was dead, too. She'd said that they would see each other again, somewhere, some time. And he had always believed in that. He still did. He needed her, without her, he didn't know what to do.

The whole time, since she had died, it had been pretty hard for him. On one side, he had been the one who the others looked up to. They had needed him to end it all. To defeat Sephiroth. He had been their leader. And he thought, now that he had done his job, they would get along pretty good without him. They didn't need him to lead them anymore. He could do as he pleased. And his first priority was to find Aerith. Though he knew that he had to leave Tifa behind.

But it was worth a try. Tifa wouldn't understand him. At least, not really. She missed Aerith as well, since they had been best friends, but it seemed that she was a little jealous of her, too. Though he didn't know why. They had been friends since they had been little kids. She should know that he loved her. More than he could explain and put into words. But she wouldn't understand why he still needed Aerith. There were so many things he still didn't know, things he hoped she could tell him. He had no other choice. Even if he had to hurt Tifa now. But when he would return to her, and tell her why he had been searching for their dead friend, she would surely understand him.

His eyes widened, he looked at the light that seemed to grow. Now it was more than just a light, but more like a small figure. And he thought he knew what figure it was.

He was quite shocked when he saw that, after some time, the shining figure had turned into a person. Someone he knew. A slender girl with long chestnut hair, tied into a ponytail, and emerald green eyes, wearing a long pink dress and a red jacket.

"Aerith…?" he whispered hoarsely, still not really believing what he saw.

She smiled faintly.

Abruptly, he stood up and made one step towards her, but she stretched her hand out to indicate that he shouldn't go further. Confused, he stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't know why he shouldn't approach her.

"Cloud… it has been too long," she said.

Not knowing what to say, he just nodded. He couldn't really believe it, that he actually saw her standing in front of him. How long had it been since they'd had to part? She hadn't changed one bit.

"I missed you." Those words seemed to float through the room. And finally, Cloud was able to say something. "I missed you, too," he whispered. "I've been looking for you."

Aerith nodded. "I know."

For some time, neither of them said anything. Just as he began to feel awkward, she spoke up. "You need to go."

Cloud blinked. "Huh? Why?"

"There's something coming up… I can't see too clearly what this might be… but Tifa will need your help."

Now, he was completely confused. What did she mean by that? "But… I don't even know where she is…"

"She's currently living in Junon. But you need to hurry. She might not be there for much longer."

"What do you mean by that?"

"When you left her… to search for me… you hurt her, deeply." Aerith sighed. "I won't say I'm not glad that you're here… but… she needs you. If you wait for too long, she won't be there… anymore… and now, she's not alone…"

Cloud held his breath, looking at her.

She gave him a sad look that sent a chill down his spine. It was not just sad, but… accusing? "You should at least have told her the real reason why you left."

Now, he really was at a loss for words. For some seconds, he just gaped at her. But then, he shook his head vigorously. "What do you mean by: something's coming up?" he wanted to know.

"I can't really tell you… I know something will happen, and I know that Tifa will be involved. I fear it might be bad. But I can't be too sure. I just know that you won't get her back, if you take too much time. You will lose her forever."

Shaking his head, Cloud stepped back. "I said I'd be back as soon as possible. How could she forget that?"

"Yeah… but you didn't tell _her_…" Aerith replied. "She's hurting, and if you don't get to see her soon, she will be taken away."

The blonde sank to his knees. "She will… die?"

Aerith sighed sadly. "I don't know… probably."

Cloud ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. How could he have ignored this? How could he not have seen this coming? She wouldn't be there forever. He would lose her. Why hadn't he taken her with him? Explained properly why he had wanted to see Aerith? Before he could say anything, Aerith' figure began to fade slowly.

"I hope we will see each other again… before this is over." With these words the flower girl disappeared into thin air, not even leaving a single trace of her appearance behind.

It took him some time to understand what had happened. That he had really seen Aerith. And what she had told him. To be honest, he hadn't expected anything like this. He didn't even know what he actually _had_ expected… but surely not this. Pulling a grimace, he stood up and turned sharply on his heel, quickly leaving the church. He needed to see Tifa. He really had to talk to her. Even if it was the last thing he would ever do.

* * *

_**A/N:** Finally... it's done... sorry it took so long..._


	20. Red Hot

_**A/N:** Yeah... here we go again XD I used this song just for the heck of it... XD the lyrics don't really fit the chapter contents, but the title fits Reno like hell... XD_

_Somehow, this is more of a Reno story than anyone else's... hm... maybe I'll change that a little... and finally put a little more Vincent somewhere... XD  
_

* * *

**Chapter 20**

Opening: _Red Hot_ (by _Ellegarden_)

"So… everything settled, then?" Reeve asked after they had talked about what they would need to do once they arrived at Midgar.

Reno nodded. If it were just for him, they wouldn't need to talk about that. He just wanted to get there and do his job. Nothing more. He wanted to return and know he had done what he should have done. And he also hoped that others would acknowledge his work. Naomi, for one… and maybe even Tifa.

He shook his head violently. Now, where had this thought come from? As if Tifa would acknowledge _anything_ he did…

As if his thoughts had summoned her, she stepped into the room. Since she ignored him completely, he was able to look at her without risking that she might hit him for that. His heart skipped a beat when he saw that she actually wore his present. Why now? Why not earlier?

She looked really pretty, wearing grey baggy pants and a black v-neck shirt. It was hard for him to suppress a satisfied smile about the fact that he had picked a necklace that suited her perfectly and even fit her earrings.

"Is there something special you want to eat for lunch?" the brunette asked.

Reno's eyes went up to her face. He remembered that he had heard Tifa crying in her room. But there were no traces of tears on her face. Presumably, she'd taken a shower before she came downstairs. But her eyes still looked sad.

"Whatever you make is fine with me," Reeve replied.

The redhead tore his eyes away from Tifa and merely nodded. He didn't know why, but he got a little mad. Partly at himself. How could it be that he had never noticed before that the brunette was suffering? He should have seen when she had been crying after his inappropriate comment he had made in the kitchen a few days ago. Could it really be that he was just some ignorant and arrogant asshole? Was he really that… immature? Somehow, he really felt sorry for her. Maybe, Spikey needed a good lecture about how to treat a woman that loved him.

"Hey, Reno… you okay?" Reeve asked him.

"Huh?" He blinked. It seemed that he had been spacing out without noticing it. "Yeah… sure, I'm okay," he replied.

Thinking that Tifa had retreated to the kitchen, he looked up, just to see her still standing there. She had tilted her head to one side and looked at him. The look in her eyes was a mixture of worry and wonder, but he couldn't be too sure about it. Without saying anything, she smiled faintly at him before she turned around and left the room.

"Well… I'd say we leave right after lunch," Rude stated, looking after the brunette.

Reeve nodded and stood up. "I'll go get changed now. Be back in a bit." With that, he left the room to go upstairs. Rude and Vincent followed him shortly after, without saying anything. But presumably they'd get changed, too.

Now, Reno was sitting there by himself. Since just the four of them – Vincent, Reeve, Rude and himself – would go on this mission, Elena and Naomi were still upstairs. And Tifa was occupying the kitchen to make lunch. Staying there all alone, that would be bad, he thought, he would just get bored and he would muse about things he didn't really want to think about. So, what should he do now? Should he also go and get changed, like the others? He looked at his clothes. He was wearing his usual white shirt and Turk suit. This outfit would be as good as any other, so he decided to leave it.

Without really noticing what he was doing, and not even thinking about it, he stood up and went to the kitchen. He stopped at the door frame and leant against it, crossing his arms.

"Can I help you?"

Reno tilted his head. "Well…" He felt awkward. Maybe he should have stayed put, then he wouldn't have to face her now. But now it was too late. "No, thanks," he replied quietly. "Do _you_ need any help?"

Tifa gave him an amused smile. "I didn't know you could cook."

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "There are many things you don't know about me."

Her smile faded immediately. "I know…" she sighed and turned back to her cooking. "Actually… I would be grateful if you could cut the leek."

Reno just nodded and stepped beside her, grabbing a knife, a dulcimer and the leek. As he started his work, he shot a sideways glance at her. "Are you alright?" he asked.

She tilted her head to one side, then nodded. "Yeah… I am… why does everyone ask me that?"

"Do they?" The redhead stopped his cutting for a moment to look at her. "I'm not sure why other people ask you this question, but I did because I want to know." He waited for a reply, but for some time, Tifa didn't say anything, she just looked at him, wide-eyed. "Well…" He shifted uncomfortably and diverted his eyes. "I heard you crying earlier… I didn't spy on you, it was just a coincidence! But I thought, maybe, you'd need someone to talk to…" Reno sighed. "I know, you don't like me and maybe I'm the wrong person… but… forget it…" Somehow, he felt stupid for saying something like this to her. They'd never got along too good… how could he expect her to spill out everything that was worrying her? And to him, of all people.

Tifa didn't know what to say. She'd never expected Reno of all people to be… nice, and even understanding, or something like that. She didn't know why he said this now. Maybe, he really felt concerned about her. Could it be that he really was different from what she thought about him?

For some time, neither of them spoke. They were both absorbed in their own thoughts, not knowing that those were quite similar.

"Well…" Reno finally said. "If you don't want to talk to me, it's okay…"

"That's not it," Tifa protested quietly. "I just didn't really expect you to be so sensible… I'm sorry."

The redhead furrowed his brows. "Maybe you could give me a chance to show you how sensible I _really_ can be… sometimes." He grinned faintly. He knew he wasn't the first choice for other people if they needed someone to talk to – except Rude, maybe, but this was completely different – because no one thought that he would understand their problems in the least. But if they didn't try, they'd never find out, now, would they?

The brunette sighed. "Don't get me wrong… but I don't feel like talking about it at the moment…"

"That's okay…" Reno replied. "But… you know… if you ever need to…" Damn, this was difficult. He didn't want her to think of him as a mollycoddle or something like that. He was a _Turk_, after all. But in addition to that, he was still _human_. Though people who realized that were quite rare.

"Thanks…" was all Tifa said.

_Hell_… Reno thought. _Cloud must have hurt her pretty much_. Why else would she just refuse to talk about it? This guy would get his lecture… he didn't know when, or how, but he would get it. Reno would make sure of that.

* * *

_**A/N:** Well... this chapter was way easier to write... but I wonder why there are more people who read this story than those who tell me how they like it? Please... if you like it, submit a review and tell me so. If you don't... do that as well... XD _


	21. Style

_**A/N:** Okay... here we go again! XD After seeing 'Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children' I seem to burst with ideas... Well... let's see what I can make out of them... And I just love the movie! Reno's just too cute... XD (still one of my two favourite characters... hehe)_

_I really hope that someone will like this chapter... and please... tell me how you like it, okay?  
_

* * *

**Chapter 21**

Opening: _Style_ (by _Baroque_)

Tifa was cleaning the meeting room downstairs, violently scrubbing on one particularly stubborn patch on Reeve's desk that just wouldn't fade away. Sighing, she brushed some strands of her dark brown hair out of her face. This was no use. She'd just have to leave it, Reeve would know that she'd done her best to clean everything.

"Oy, Tifa!" she heard Elena call for her. "Done yet?"

"Almost!" she retorted loudly.

"I thought we could go shopping later," the blonde continued, stepping into the room. "Since the guys won't return before this evening, we've got plenty of time."

The brunette nodded. "Yeah… that would be great. Then, I could get my hair cut."

"Are you mad?" Elena gaped at her. "Everyone _loves_ your beautiful long hair… you can't do that!"

Tifa smiled at her, though it looked kind of sad. "I just thought about cutting of a few inches, not all of it. Besides, I can't leave it like this. Somehow… every time I look into the mirror, I have to think about Cloud… he always said he liked my hair… Maybe, if I try a different style, it would be easier for me to cope with this…"

The blonde stepped up to her and pulled her into a tight hug. "I understand what you mean… if it makes you feel better, then it's fine with me." She held Tifa out at arm's length.

"I'm okay," Tifa tried to reassure her. "You don't need to worry about me right now."

Elena sighed. "Fine… but if you _ever_ need anything, even if it's just someone to talk to, feel free to tell me, okay?"

The brunette looked at her, surprised. "That's what Reno said, too."

The Turk raised an eyebrow. "Did he, really?" she asked, incredulously looking at her.

Laughing, Tifa stepped back. "He sure did."

"You know," Elena said, frowning at her, "could it be that he's quite fond of you?"

Hearing this, the brunette laughed even more. " Reno? Fond of me? Do you even know what you're talking about here?" She shook her head. "I just think he's trying to be nice, because I still refuse to forgive him that he destroyed sector 7."

"Are you sure?" Elena wanted to know. "Maybe you're right," she sighed. "But don't you think that even Reno has feelings?" Getting no reply, she continued. "I know, he doesn't like to show it to other people, but actually, he's a great guy. He can be rude at times, and really annoying, and he's quite full of himself… but if he wants to and likes someone, he is pretty nice and caring. And you can't deny that he's quite good looking." The blonde grinned and winked at her.

"I never looked at him _that_ closely," Tifa retorted. "And he sure drives me insane, sometimes." She furrowed her brows. She'd never thought about Reno from this point of view. But this would be ridiculous, so she'd better drop it.

Elena nudged her lightly. "Come on… why don't you give it a try?"

"Because I don't want to," the brunette replied, frowning. "And I'm sure that he wouldn't want that, too. Besides, even _if_ I tried, it wouldn't work. I still need some time to get over Cloud."

The blonde sighed in frustration. "I see… but I'm sure he would understand it, if I am correct and he really likes you. Do me a favour and think about it, at least."

Tifa narrowed her eyes a little. "Maybe, if I ever forgive him." She was quite sure she'd never even dare think about it. She wouldn't forgive him too easily. And there was no way for her to ever love someone else…

"Where's Naomi, by the way?" she suddenly asked.

"In her room, I think," Elena said. "I will go look for her. When you're finished here, we can go on our shopping tour… you really could do with some distraction." She turned to leave the room. "And please… don't _ever_ tell Reno what I said about him okay?" the blonde inquired. "I don't want him to know that I once had a crush on him."

Tifa blinked in surprise. "Okay…" she said. She couldn't believe it. Somehow, this was really ridiculous.

As Elena left the room, she just stood there for a while, then she turned to Reeve's desk.

_T.T_

They were on their way back to Junon, and they were pretty tired. Killing all those monsters had sure worn them out. The only one who seemed to be totally unaffected was Vincent. Reeve was wondering how this man did this. But maybe the ex-Turk didn't do anything, and it was just because of the alterations Hojo had done with his body.

He tiredly raised an eyebrow when his PHS rang. Who could that be? He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it. "Yeah?"

"Reeve? This is Tifa."

"Oh…" he said, surprised. "How are you?"

"Pretty good… um… I was just thinking…" She trailed off.

"Can I help you with anything?" Reeve asked. He shook his head when Rude shot him a questioning look.

"I hope so. You know… well… this is quite ridiculous…"

"Just spill it out and I'll try my best to help you." He'd do anything to help her, since she was kind enough to do all the cooking and cleaning. Even without that, she deserved his help.

"Well…" She sighed. "You know, I'd like to ask – and please don't laugh – wanted to know if there's something special Reno likes to eat… I just want to thank him. He helped me a lot yesterday."

Reeve frowned. Now, that was a strange request.

"I don't want to ask himself…" Tifa continued. "I want it to be something of a surprise, you know?"

"I can't wait to get back!" the redhead complained loudly. "I'm hungry!"

Reeve raised an eyebrow. "Get a grip on yourself."

Tifa couldn't suppress a giggle. "That didn't really help, though," she said.

"I know," Reeve sighed.

"I'm tired as Hell… and I thought you were, too… How on Earth can you think about _food_ now?" Rude asked his redheaded companion.

"But I want pancakes!" Reno whined. "And I don't know anyone who could cook at least half as good as Tifa!"

Vincent raised an eyebrow at that. "Then, why don't you just go and _ask_ her to make some, once we're back?"

"Do you think I want her to punch me again?"

"Then try to ask _nicely_…"

"Pancakes?" Tifa laughed at the other end of the line. "If that's all, then it won't be a problem."

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Reeve wanted to know.

"Nope… that was it… but I need to know when you will be back… so that I know when dinner should be ready."

"I can't really tell you yet," he sighed. "But I'll give you a call beforehand."

"Okay!" Tifa exclaimed cheerfully. "See you then! And thanks again!" With that, she closed the connection.

Frowning, Reeve put his PHS back into his pocket.

"Who was that?" Reno wanted to know.

He raised his eyebrows. "A friend," he answered vaguely. If he told him that it was Tifa who'd called, he'd also have to tell him _why_ she'd called. And since the brunette had said that she wanted to be a surprise, he couldn't go and spoil it.

"What friend?"

"Just a friend!"

"You're mean!"

"Mind your own business for once," Vincent muttered almost inaudible.

_T.T_

Elena was doing crosswords while Tifa prepared dinner and Naomi tried her best to help her. Reeve had called a little earlier than expected to tell them that they would arrive soon. Tifa had tied her hair into a loose bun whereas Naomi, who had also gotten her hair cut, just wore a ponytail.

Shortly after Tifa was finished and they had put plates and forks and everything onto the table, they heard footsteps descending the stairs.

Finally, the guys were back.

Quickly, Tifa grabbed the plates with the pancakes and hurried out of the room to take the small staircase that no one used, usually. She went upstairs into an almost empty room. There was just a table and two chairs. Reeve had told her that she could use it for her surprise, and she had decorated it nicely.

She was a little nervous. She didn't know why she was actually doing this, but since she'd said she would do it, she now had to. There was no turning back. She wondered if Reno had felt like this when he had given her this beautiful necklace.

Tifa couldn't help but think about what Elena had told her. Maybe she was right. Maybe Reno really liked her. Though Tifa still loved Cloud; she would not be able to return this. But since she couldn't be too sure, she would have to find out. After their little talk this morning, she was determined to get over Cloud and maybe even find someone else. Though, this someone had not to be Reno, specifically. But… it was worth a try to at least find out what they meant to each other. When they turned out to be good friends, that would be fine with her. Maybe, this would be better.

She sighed. This was terrible. Those were only _pancakes_! So, why make such a fuss about it?

_T.T_

Reno stormed into the kitchen, hoping that he could finally eat something. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Elena and Naomi standing there. Where was Tifa?

He sniffed a little. "Do I smell pancakes?"

"Oy! You're wrong here!" Reeve said from behind him, grabbing his sleeve and dragging him out of the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Reno inquired, quite stunned at Reeve's behaviour. "Oy!" he muttered. "I'm talking to you!"

"I will take you where you're supposed to be," was the reply.

"And why?"

"A promise I made."

"What promise?" the redhead wanted to know. "What the Hell _is_ this about?"

"Just shut up and follow me!"

As they arrived the room of which Reeve had told Tifa that she could use it, he finally let go of the redhead. Though he wasn't really sure why the brunette wasted so much time and effort just to surprise Reno, he would do as he'd promised her. It wasn't his business what she was doing as long as she was well aware of her actions and didn't interfere with his work. And since this wouldn't ever be a problem – this was _Tifa_ he was thinking about – because the young woman was more than capable of her actions, he wasn't worried at all.

He knocked at the door and opened it too peek into the room. He saw Tifa standing there in front of the decorated table with the pancakes and some other things and nodded to her. She gave him an insincere smile, but nodded nervously. She looked pretty, he thought and furrowed his brows. Was there something going on he didn't know about?

The brunette seemed to read his mind, because she slowly shook her head and made a vague gesture at the room. So she really just wanted to thank Reno for something with this, nothing more. Reeve nodded again.

"Oy, what is it?" Reno muttered. "Do I need to sleep on the floor or what?"

"Sorry," Reeve replied simply and gave Tifa the thumbs up, just before he turned to Reno and indicated the slightly open door. "This is where you're supposed to be… now. And if you don't go inside – _quick_ – you're fired!" he hissed menacingly.

The redhead blinked in confusion. Now, what was this all about? He just knew that Reeve wanted him to be in this room, though it was empty. Why couldn't he be downstairs and eat pancakes with the others? But he didn't dare disobey, he didn't want to lose his job so soon. So he just sighed and did as he was told. Looking at the floor, he shoved his hands into his pockets, while Reeve watched him enter the room, then closed the door with his foot.

Sighing deeply, he finally looked up. And his jaw dropped.

The room wasn't empty at all, like he thought. But there was a neat table with two chairs. The table was decorated nicely, with candles, some plates with pancakes, then marmalade and syrup… he turned his gaze to the left. And then he saw Tifa. Reno was completely stunned.

She looked really pretty… no… _beautiful_… to be honest. He had never looked at her too closely before, but now he did, and he wondered why he never noticed it before. Wearing a long black woolen dress with a slit on the left side, reaching up to the middle of her thigh, then slightly high-heeled black boots, her hair tied into a loose bun… a hint of make-up.

Tifa crossed her arms. "Do you want to stand there, gaping, for the whole night?" she asked with a hint of amusement in her voice.

Reno shook his head violently. "Are those… for me?" he whispered.

The brunette nodded. "Yeah… I thought it was time to thank you…"

"For what?" the redhead asked, surprised.

"You're trying to be nice to me… when you just offered that I could talk to you, if I needed to… it helped me a lot. And then… this beautiful necklace you gave me… I needed to thank you for that, too."

Reno cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't really do anything for you… there's no need to thank me," he said, incredulously looking at her. "But if this means that much to you…" He trailed off. "By the way… how did you know that I liked pancakes?" he wanted to know. This was still beyond him.

Tifa grinned. "You said it loud enough for anyone to hear!"

"Huh?" Reno blinked. "I… you mean, _you_ were the one who called Reeve earlier?"

The brunette nodded, smiling slightly. "There was no way to _not_ hear that you wanted pancakes. So… in order to thank you somehow, I made you some. And you didn't even need to ask me for that."

The redhead was just overwhelmed. He didn't know what to say. So, this meant that Tifa didn't really hate him. With a few steps he crossed the room and pulled her into a tight hug. "You're the best, did anyone ever tell you that?" he said quietly.

Tifa stiffened and Reno immediately stepped away. "I'm sorry…" he murmured. "I just… wanted to show you how grateful I am… that you give me a chance to let you see that I'm not the cold-hearted Turk you probably think I am… I didn't want to offend you or anything… maybe, we could be friends?" he asked tentatively, stretching a hand out to her.

She considered it for a few seconds before accepting it. "Friends," she said. "But I will still need some time to forgive you… but I'll try."

The redhead frowned a little, but then he grinned at her. "That's okay… I can wait… by the way… you look great! Did you do anything with your hair?"

"Funny, you notice it," Tifa replied smiling. "I got it cut a little and got some highlights, too." She sighed. "Cloud would never have noticed it."

Reno gave her a strange look. "Still need some time to get over him, huh?"

"Yeah…" she whispered. "I'm trying my best, though. I know, he's not worth it, and I hope I'm over it, soon."

"I understand. If I can help you, just tell me."

"Thanks," she smiled at him. "I'm really grateful for that."

Reno nodded and turned to the table, closely followed by Tifa, before both of them sat down to eat.

* * *

_**A/N:** OK... finally done... I hope I can add more Vincent and Naomi next time, but this story went totally out of hand... I'm still enjoying writing it, though... and I needed a filler until I get back to the important events... XD_


	22. Sick

_**A/N:** Wow... finally managed one chapter without Reno... this is getting bad... after seeing Advent Children I think I'm getting obsessed... but this ain't no good... hopefully, I can get this story where it's supposed to be... but since this went completely out of hand, I can't really promise anything... but as long as there are still people enjoying it, this doesn't matter at all... since I will still try to make the best out of it... XD_

_And I've just found out that there actually is an address named "Naomi Crescent" somewhere in England, I think... XD lol who would have thought?  
_

* * *

**Chapter 22**

Opening: _Sick_ (by _12012_)

Cloud was more than glad when he finally arrived at the chocobo stables that were a way off between Kalm and the Mythril Mines. Now he could get the black chocobo they had left there with the blue and green one after they had successfully bred a golden one. He hoped it was still there. Since he had never bothered to take one with him after he had left Cosmo Canyon to search for Aerith, he'd had to walk from Midgar to Kalm, where he had found a nice person to drive him here.

"Thank you," he said quietly and handed the man some gil.

"No problem. But you don't need to pay for the ride."

"But I want to," Cloud responded, simply refusing to take the money back. "It's the least I can do… for your effort to bring me down here. Thanks."

The dark haired man just nodded and restarted the engine of his vehicle to get back to Kalm.

Cloud watched the retreating car for a short while before he turned around and entered the main house of the farm to let the owner know that he would take one of the chocobos with him. This way, no one would think about thievery when one of the big birds was missing.

"Hello?" he called out tentatively, hoping that anyone would be at home.

After some seconds of waiting he finally got a weak reply. It sounded like the man was in pain. Carefully, he stepped inside and went to the back of the house. There he saw the owner, ghastly white, laying in his bed.

"Oh… it's you," the old man whispered hoarsely.

"What happened?" the blonde wanted to know.

"Age," was the simple reply. "When you're getting old, there is nothing you can do. Can I help you in any way?"

"Actually, I'm just here to let you know that I will take the black chocobo with me, so that you won't think it was stolen."

The old man nodded, smiling slightly. "That's okay…" he said. "My grandson will take care of this."

Cloud nodded, hesitating to leave this man alone. But he needed to hurry, Aerith had said so. There was no way he'd want to lose Tifa forever, in which way that would ever be. Feeling a little helpless, he made his way to the stables to get his chocobo. It was like the man had just said: No one could beat age – or time, for that matter.

When he entered, Billy looked up from his work feeding the chocobos. "Need a chocobo?" he asked.

"Yeah… I'll take the black one," the blonde replied.

The boy nodded. "They're yours anyway."

Slowly, he led the big black bird out of its stable, but before he mounted it, he turned to the boy again, to buy some greens. He knew that the chocobo was loyal to him, but it still wouldn't like it if it wouldn't get any food on the long way to Junon.

The sun was setting now, tinting the sky in different shades of yellow, orange and crimson. It was a beautiful sight for one who had the leisure to relish it. But Cloud wasn't one of those people now. He snaffled his black chocobo to the west, carefully spurring it on, away from the beautifully tinged horizon in his back.

He just hoped, he would make it on time.

_T.T_

Naomi woke up, bathed in sweat. It had been another nightmare. And every time he remembered more details of it. Though it constantly seemed to change a little. With every nightmare, she went further in this darkened building. Wherever it was. But she was sure that this weren't just ordinary dreams. Most of them were containing hidden memories. That she was sure of now.

The sudden urge to cry out loud rose within her, but she managed to suppress it. Because… with this scream there was something else trying to make its way out of her. She still didn't know what it was, but she had a bad feeling about it. So she thought it better to not let it out. Otherwise, it could turn out nasty… and she didn't want that. Maybe, she would endanger Reno, Vincent or Tifa. Or one of the others. She liked them all way too much to do that to them.

For a short moment, her throat tightened, she thought she was going to suffocate. Her cold hands wrapped around her neck she tried hard to breathe normally again. Some seconds later, she managed it. But not for long…

That… _thing_… tried to get out of her again… While she was struggling to fight it back, she feared that she could lose… she just couldn't let this happen! Naomi almost fell out of her bed while she was rolling from one side to the other, grasping her throat. Trying to suppress the pain.

Her surroundings began to swirl in front of her, tears welling up in her eyes, her breathing became ragged and rattling. Added to this, she felt like throwing up. Removing one hand from her throat, she tried to get up. But it was a futile attempt. Making a strange noise, she brought her hand up, covering her mouth.

_T.T_

As always, Vincent was sitting in his room, reading a book he had bought recently. Since he now had enough room to himself, he had started collecting historical and scientific books. But this time, he couldn't really concentrate on the contents.

He had a feeling that something was wrong, though he couldn't figure out what it was. But it was constantly nagging somewhere in the back of his mind, persistently dancing out of his grasp when he tried to catch it.

With a loud sigh, he placed his book on the table, since he wasn't really able to take it in.

Damn!

Just what the Hell was wrong now?!

Vincent closed his eyes firmly, trying to block everything unnecessary out… after a while he had even his thoughts shut away. Without more than thirty years of practice he wouldn't probably be able to. But this had become routine, he never needed to think about it.

He was listening intently to anything that could be going on inside this building. On this floor, everything seemed to be alright. The others were sleeping. And there was no one downstairs. On the floor above… two of the three rooms were quiet, but the third one… gagging, rattling breaths, choking… struggling…

His eyes suddenly snapped open. Naomi!

Without a second thought he stood up and hurried out of his room, practically flying upstairs, taking three steps at a time. He didn't know what was wrong with her, but he had the feeling that it was bad. Maybe she was ill. But he wasn't too sure about that. He suspected that it was because of the Jenova cells. Or was it something else? He would find out, eventually. But first, he had to make sure that she would be alright.

He didn't care to knock at her door, since she wouldn't be able to answer, anyway. He almost tore it off its hinges when he threw it open, and then he stopped dead for about three seconds. Getting a grip on himself, he was instantly at her side, trying to help her sit up. But this wasn't too easy of a job, since she was still choking madly. She had covered her mouth with one hand, and as he saw that there was _blood_ trickling down to the floor, he fought down a panic. It wouldn't help her in the least when he freaked out now.

"Shit!" he swore. Why did this have to happen now? She had seemed so healthy and cheerful for the last days that he had almost forgotten that she was 'infected'…

Since there was nothing he could do for her now, he dashed out of the room, running downstairs to Reeve's room. For the whole time, he didn't make any sound.

Inwardly, he disliked to trouble Reeve in the middle of the night, but he had no other choice, this was urgent. If he didn't get any help soon, Naomi would probably die! He almost crashed the door when he pounded his fist against it, in order to wake Reeve up without having to enter his room and disturb his privacy in addition to his sleep.

After some time, a disheveled Reeve opened the door a bit, looking disgruntled at the disturbance. "What is it?" he mumbled. "If this isn't urgent, I swear, you're gonna regret it." Upon seeing the panicstricken face of Vincent, he shook his sleep off. This was the first time _ever_ that he saw the ex-Turk in such a state. "What happened?" he wanted to know.

"Naomi!" the enigmatic gunman urged out. "She's sick! Maybe, she's going to die! She needs a doctor!"

Reeve immediately turned around and went to his desk, without closing the door. Hastily, he searched for his PHS and dialed a well known number of the only doctor he'd ever trusted.

"Hi, this is Reeve," he said as soon as his old friend answered the phone.

"God, Reeve, do you know what time it is?" came the disgruntled reply.

"I know… and I'm really sorry. But I need your help! _Now_!" he almost cried into the cell phone. "This is _urgent_, or else I wouldn't have bothered to call at this time of night!"

"Okay, okay… I'm on my way…"

"_Quick_, please!" He closed the connection and looked for some clothes. "Does anyone know about it yet?" he asked Vincent who still stood in the doorway.

The gunman shook his head. "When I came, I had just found out."

Reeve nodded, tossed some jeans and a shirt on and followed Vincent up to Naomi's room. Miraculously, nobody had woken up at the racket Vincent had caused to wake him.

The ex-Turk had left the door open when he had left before. Now, Reeve turned the light on – and gasped in shock.

The girl was still struggling with something invisible and spitting blood, wallowing about.

"Stay with her," Reeve just said and left the room, constantly cursing under his breath while he quickly made his way downstairs. It seemed like an eternity to him when he finally reached the kitchen. He got a large bowl out of one of the cupboards and filled it with hot water. Then he took it, together with a small towel, and went back to Naomi's room.

On his way there, a door slowly creaked open and Tifa peeked out, a sleepy expression on her face. "What's going on?" she mumbled, looking at Reeve and then the bowl in his hands. "What are you going to do with that?"

"Naomi's sick," was the only and simple reply, before he went on.

A sharp "What!" startled him, so that some drops of water fell to the ground. But he didn't stop to explain anything. He heard some shuffling behind him. Obviously, Tifa put on her dressing gown to follow him, though he wasn't sure if that was a good idea. But he doubted that he could deter her. After some seconds he could hear her footsteps, confirming his thoughts. He shrugged inwardly, maybe she would be able to help. At least, a little. Though he was anything than sure about that.

When he re-entered the room, he quickly made his way to the bed, next to Vincent, putting the bowl onto the bedstand.

The enigmatic gunman had managed to help Naomi sit up and held some cloth to her mouth. Her breaths had become shallow, she had closed her eyes firmly. She was horribly pale and had one hand gripped on Vincent's arm, with such a force that the pain was evident on the ex-Turk's face.

Tifa rushed to his side, looking thunderstruck. "How the Hell could that happen?" she asked.

Vincent looked at her and shook his head helplessly. He didn't need to say anything for her to know that he was just as clueless as herself.

Shoving Reeve aside, she took the towel out of the man's grasp before putting it into the bowl with the water, drenching it. Then she wrought it, before she began to gently wipe the sweat and blood from Naomi's face. The girl flinched with every touch of the wet fabric, but the brunette simply ignored it.

"Too bad that I don't have any Restore Materia with me… since Cloud took them all with him…" she sighed.

At this moment, someone rang the door bell. Tifa jerked her head around, not having anticipated that someone would drop by at this time of night.

"That's the doctor…" Vincent whispered, carefully prying Naomi's fingers off his arm and laying it around her shoulders to steady her.

Reeve nodded, immediately retreating from the room to answer the door, before Yolanda would ring again and wake the others.

* * *

_**A/N:** I'm really sorry for the cliffhanger, but I felt the need to leave it here, so I won't take an eternity to update... I hope the next part will be up soon... as always, I would be more than grateful, if you could tell me what you think of it._


	23. At any cost

_**A/N:** It was kind of hard to continue this now... since I had to watch Advent Children a few more times XD... this movie is just gorgeous... I love it! And it's a good way to try to get the characters right... I suppose... though, actually, this wasn't the reason anyway. XD I'm just obsessed with it, and most of all Reno, Vincent and Tifa... hehe_

_And I really, really hope there are some people who like this story and _please_ tell me so... I _know_ there are more people who read this than those who write reviews... I think reviews could be used for some improvement, if I make any mistakes here, so _please, please tell me so!_  
_

* * *

**Chapter 23**

Opening: _At any cost_ (by _wyse_)

Just a few moments later, Reeve re-entered the room with the doctor he had called earlier. She was a tall woman with frameless glasses, short brown hair and grey eyes. Putting her heavy medical bag down with a loud thud, she pushed Tifa aside, who had been fretting over Naomi. Then she took a look at the girl on the bed, which was still spilling some blood. "How long has she been like that?" she wanted to know.

Reeve looked at Vincent, since he had been the one who found her.

The tall gunman shifted uncomfortably. "For about at least ten minutes, as far as I know. I don't know when it began, I just found out before I told Reeve immediately."

The doctor just nodded. She sat down on the bed and almost slipped on the fair amount of blood on the floor. With a sigh, she bent down to open her bag. Taking some things she would need out, she looked up. "I need you to leave the room."

"But, Yolanda!" Reeve protested, but he knew it was no good to disobey her orders. She'd know best what to do. So it would be better when they just retreated. "Tifa, Vincent… if you would follow me, please."

Vincent looked at him with wide eyes, but nodded anyway. He just hoped that this doctor could help Naomi. With a last glance at the pale girl, he turned to leave the room, Reeve and Tifa following him.

Once outside, Tifa shut the door gently. "I hope she will be okay," she whispered, on the verge of tears.

Reeve put a hand on her shoulder. "I hope so, too." He turned around when he heard a door creak upstairs. He had hoped that they hadn't woken anyone, but he should have known that this was futile since Vincent had made pretty much noise before, and the door bell ringing hadn't been much help, either. Shortly after, footsteps were heard on the stairs. By the way this person was ascending, Reeve could tell that it as Reno. He sighed inwardly. Just great… more people to freak out at this time of night…

"What's happening here?" the redhead wanted to know. "A gathering?" He stifled a yawn and stepped up in front of Reeve.

The dark haired man just shook his head and motioned that he should be quiet.

Seeing the distress on the other man's face, Reno cocked an eyebrow. He felt that something wasn't quite right here. Vincent was walking in circles, not able to hold his nervousness back completely. Tifa was sitting on the floor, her back leant at the wall, tears streaking down her cheeks. No one said anything, but the air around them bristled with uneasiness. It was just then that he noticed that they were gathered at Naomi's door. "What happened?" he whispered.

At that moment, Tifa couldn't hold it any longer, she just broke into tears. She just couldn't get the image of the bleeding, pale and miserable Naomi out of her mind. She had been shocked to see her like this. Though the girl was a little quiet at times, she was just lovely and fun to be around. There just had to be a way to save her. And she hated to feel so helpless right now. Trying to suppress her sobs, she pulled her knees to her chest, laid her arms around them and buried her face in her arms. Wasn't there anything she could do for Naomi?

Reno gaped for a few seconds when he saw Tifa break down, but then he just shook his head violently before making his way to her side, laying his arms around her slender body, hoping to offer at least a little comfort. He knew that she would have kicked him for that just a few days ago, but now, after they had talked about some things, it was different. Getting no reaction from her, he pulled her close to him, carefully stroking her hair. "Shh…" he whispered.

He looked up at Vincent, who had finally stopped his pacing and gave Tifa a sympathetic look. The redhead raised his eyebrow into a graceful arc, he had never seen the creepy man look like that. In fact, he had never seen him look other than stoic. "What's up?"

The gunman sighed and looked on the ground. "Well…" he started. "How should I put it?"

"Maybe, in an easy way?" Reno suggested. He jerked a little when the door creaked open and a woman he didn't know spoke up. "I will need someone with blood type 0…"

Shaking madly, Tifa raised her head a little. "I have…" she choked out.

"Then, would you please come in?"

The brunette nodded and wriggled out of Reno's arms. Vincent stretched a hand out to help her get up and she accepted it with a grateful look at him. Without saying anything, she entered the room before the door was closed behind her.

Reno sighed in exasperation and banged his head at the wall. "So, would anyone please be kind enough to finally tell me what is going on here?"

Vincent shifted uncomfortably, giving Reeve a pleading look. The man sighed and turned to Reno, still with a worried expression on his face. "Naomi is sick."

"Wha…" The redhead tilted his head and accidentally hit the wall behind him. Cursing under his breath, he rubbed the back of his head and pulled a face. "What do you mean by _sick_?"

Reeve rolled his eyes. "Sick as in: She's pale, she can't breathe properly and she is spilling blood."

Reno stood up, careful to not hit the wall again. "How can that be?"

Vincent shrugged helplessly. "We don't know ourselves, hopefully, the doctor can help her."

The redhead wanted to shove his hands in his pockets, but wearing just a t-shirt and boxers, that didn't work. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

"Apparently not," Reeve retorted, leaning against the banister. "I think, Yolanda called Tifa to give her blood."

"You think…" Reno sneered. "I don't care what you _think_, we need to make sure that she's alright!"

"And how?" Vincent demanded. "Do you think we didn't try to help her ourselves? What do you think we called the doctor for?" Normally, he didn't mind Reno much, but right now he was downright annoying. If he kept this attitude any longer, he would have to do something to silence him. And he didn't really care about how he would do it.

The door opened again and Tifa stepped out, looking exhausted. Immediately, Reno rushed over to her. She was swaying a little and the redhead grabbed her arm to support her. She gave him a grateful look.

"Good news?" Reeve asked tentatively.

The brunette nodded. "Naomi is sleeping right now. The doctor was able to stop the bleeding, but since she had lost much blood, I had to give some to her. She said she would have to stay here to make some tests, she can't really say what is wrong with Naomi yet."

Reeve nodded. "That will be fine with me. I think, I should give her the test report Rude found at the ShinRa HQ. Maybe, this will help her to find out."

Tifa smiled faintly. "Yeah… anything to make sure Naomi will be okay."

Agreeing to this, Reno laid his arm around Tifa's waist to keep her on her feet. "Come on, sweetheart, you need some rest."

"Don't call me that," she protested. "And I won't be able to sleep right now."

The redhead sighed. Reeve raised an eyebrow. "I think, I will get a room prepared, for Yolanda. I can't sleep, either. Let's meet up in the kitchen, okay?" With that, he went to one of the unoccupied rooms on this floor to make it livable for the doctor.

Vincent shot a worried glance at the closed door of Naomi's room, then he went downstairs.

Reno ran a hand through his tangled hair and pinched Tifa slightly. Since she was a little weak on her knees for the amount of blood she had given to Naomi, he suppurted her all the way down and into the kitchen. He led her to a chair and didn't let go of her before she'd sat down. He turned to the counter to make some coffee, all too aware of the small scratch that had been there since Tifa had hit him bad enough to make him fly into that. Shivering slightly at the thought of that, he was glad that they had made it up and could probably be friends. He couldn't describe how relieved he had been after hearing that she didn't hate him at all. So there was a chance that she would never hit him again.

He was no stranger to pain, he had been hit, shot and stabbed way too often when he had worked for ShinRa. But that didn't mean that he liked it. If he had the choice, he'd rather avoid it.

After some time, Reeve finally came down into the kitchen, looking tired. It had been a rough night for all of them. He gladly accepted the mug of coffee Reno offered him. "Thanks…" he muttered, brushing a few hairs out of his face. He turned to sit down at the table, looking wearily at the others around him. Vincent was standing at the window, his arms crossed in front of his chest, staring blankly at the open door, but not seeming to see it at all. Tifa sat at the table opposite him, using her folded arms as a pillow, a steaming mug standing in front of her. Reno sat down beside her, giving her a worried look and laying a hand on her back.

Upon his touch she raised her head a little and gave him a weak smile.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

She squinted at him, nodding slightly. "Yeah… just exhausted."

"You sure you don't want to go to bed?"

"I am." She sighed and sat straight up, grabbing her cup and sipping a little of the hot black liquid inside.

Reno shifted into a comfortable position on his chair, still watching her intently. "You look like shit," he finally stated.

"Charming as always," Tifa grinned at him.

The redhead shrugged indifferently. "Just telling you the truth."

When the doctor finally entered the kitchen, everyone looked at her, eager to hear some good news from her. She sighed, sat down at the table and ran a hand through her short dark hair. Nodding when Reeve offered her a cup of coffee, she leant back on her chair and looked at the ceiling. "I couldn't really do much for her," she said quietly, feeling all the anticipating stares on her. "But for now, she will be okay. I gave her some sedatives, so she will be sleeping for some time. I need to get more equipment, since I have to take some tests to be able to tell was is actually wrong with her."

Reeve immediately stood up and left the room. When he returned, he gave the doctor the test report Rude had found at the ShinRa HQ. "Here, hopefully, this will help."

Yolanda nodded and accepted the papers, not taking a glance at them yet. She would read them properly by tomorrow, after getting some decent rest.

"I've got a room prepared for you, if you intend on staying here for now," Reeve said. "And I can arrange to get your equipment by tomorrow."

"Okay…" was the short answer.

For some time no one said anything, feeling too exhausted to have a conversation. Tifa almost fell asleep and ran the risk of falling off her chair. Steadying her, Reno stated grimly that she needed to sleep. The brunette nodded feebly and stood up. Simply ignoring her weak protests, the redhead hoisted her in his arms and carried her upstairs, personally taking care of her really going to bed to rest.

"But, Reno…" Tifa said in an attempt to reason with him, but he firmly shook his head.

"You need to sleep. Do I have to knock you out?" With that, he covered her with her blanket and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

* * *

_**A/N:** Phew... finally done... since I'm regularly discovering some mistakes in the older chapters, I think I could do well with a beta. If anyone is interested, you can tell me._

_I really hope that anyone like this chapter, since I'm not too contented... but, oh well... I'm just glad that I was able to finish it._


	24. Kodou

_**A/N**: Whaa... I just noticed how long I actually didn't update this thing... shit... but there was so much I needed to do in the meantime... and with everything going on... I am really sorry about this... and let's forget about the new edit, I will drop it... -sigh-_

_This story caused me to want to jump out of the window... especially this chapter... Actually, it was done long ago... at least, almost... it wasn't very easy to finish though... but... problem is, I cannot find the original chapter (shame on me)... so I needed to write another one as a filler until I find the actual one... as far as I remember it, the chapter fits in after this and maybe even after the next... and if I don't find it... well, than I can't help it, but I hope I will... and sorry again that you all had to wait so long for this... though, I'm not sure if there is still someone who wants to read it after all this time... -gna-_

* * *

**Chapter 24**

Opening: _Kodou_ (by _Dir en grey_)

It was about half past six in the morning when Tifa woke with a start. She blinked and sat up, tiredly rubbing her eyes and wondering why she was already awake.

"Tifa?" she heard Elena call, just before there was a loud knock at the door.

The brunette shook her head lightly, in order to get rid of the tiredness, though it didn't really work, she was still feeling dizzy. Then she got out of her bed and went to open the door. "What is it?" she muttered. "Don't you think it's still a bit early for breakfast?"

The blond Turk stared at her, panic evident in her brown eyes. "Breakfast?!" she whispered hoarsely. "Who on Earth cares about something like that now? There are more pressing matters at hand!" She was talking so fast hat Tifa just understood half of what she said.

"Why did you wake me up, then?" Her head was throbbing madly and she was in absolutely no condition to try and work out what Elena was trying to tell her.

"I thought… I just…" the blonde stammered. "Someone needs to tell you, so I -"

"What do you think you're doing here?" came a grumpy male voice from behind the blonde. She turned around, just to see Reno walking up to them with a sour expression on his face. "Don't you have any decency?"

Elena drew herself up to her full height and glared at him. "As a matter of fact, I do!"

The redhead crossed his arms as he stopped right in front of her. "Then let - her - sleep!" he hissed through clenched teeth.

"But she should know -" Elena started, but Reno cut across her.

"That's not for you to decide! She already knows about it, we are taking care of this, so will you let her sleep!" he growled darkly, narrowing his eyes and taking a step towards her.

Elena was at a loss for words. She shot a glance at Tifa who was obviously confused. "Don't you care what will happen to Naomi?" she asked the redheaded Turk, tears filling her eyes.

Reno sighed in frustration. "Of course I care! We all do! Why do you think we've been up all night?" He pushed Elena away from Tifa's room. "But there's nothing we can do for her right now and she's not the only person to care about… you should go and help Rude," he told her.

"If you say so," she said stiffly as she made her way to the stairs. "Obviously, I missed something. And don't think Reeve won't hear about this!" With these words she disappeared.

Reno rolled his eyes to the ceiling, then he turned back to Tifa. "I am really sorry about this," he said consolingly. "Are you okay?"

She watched him with a thoughtful look. After some seconds, comprehension dawned on her face. "Shit!" She went into her room and began to bustle around.

"What are you doing?" he inquired, following her.

"Naomi," she muttered absentmindedly. "How could I forget about this?" Tifa took some clothes out of her wardrobe and wanted to put them on, obviously she hadn't noticed that the redhead was there.

He hastily closed the door behind him and rushed over to her. "Now, calm down," Reno said, quite shocked. "As much as I'd love to see that… I don't think that you would want me to… so please get a grip on yourself!"

She gave him a confused look, then her expression darkened. "What are you doing in my bedroom?" she whispered dangerously, already halfway through undressing and now letting her arms sink a little lower.

Reno pulled her nightdress back down. "Taking care that you get some sleep," he replied quietly.

"Get out of here! I need to look after Naomi!" Tifa said urgently and turned her back on him, wanting to get dressed.

"No, you don't." He stepped behind her and laid both hands onto her shoulders. "You need to sleep. The others will look after her, the doctor is with her right now and making her tests. You don't need to worry about it right now."

Tifa pushed his hands away and faced him. "You don't understand, she -"

"She has everything she might need," he interrupted her. "But you don't. What am I supposed to do to get you back into your bed?"

"But I -" she tried again.

"You," Reno said sternly, "need some sleep. I know that you're worried, but there is still nothing you can do."

Tifa looked at him with sad eyes, but there was no single trace of a tear to be seen. She had cried enough last night. She felt desperate, she was worried like Hell and she was aching to help Naomi. But she wouldn't cry now. She couldn't. She was beyond tears.

The redhead couldn't stand her gaze for very long. After just a few moments he reached out, grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug.

At first, she was surprised and wanted to wriggle out of his arms, but then she gave in and let out a dry sob.

"There… it's okay…" Reno whispered quietly. He slowly ran a hand through her long dark hair and stroked her back, before he tightly wrapped his arms around her.

"Reno… I…" Tifa murmured into his shirt, tugging at his sleeve.

"Huh?" He loosened his grip a little and looked at her.

"Thanks," she sighed in relief. "I thought I would suffocate…"

The redhead gave a snort of laughter. "I'm sorry," he grinned, then he suddenly got serious again. "You know…" he started, but didn't continue. He wasn't sure what he could possibly say now. For some time he just looked at her, then he sighed deeply. He put a strand of her hair out of her face and smiled slightly. "You need to sleep," he whispered and kissed her lightly on the forehead before he turned around and went to the door.

Just before he could open it he heard footsteps and Tifa hugged him from behind. "Please… don't go…" she muttered. "I can't stand being alone at them moment."

Reno closed his eyes for a second and then turned back to her. "Tifa…" he said hoarsely.

She blinked at him and averted her eyes. "I… I just…" She didn't know what to say, so she just shrugged and slowly turned around.

He took one step and hoisted her in his arms, carrying her to her bed. "If this is the only way to get you to sleep, then I'll do it," he said firmly as he laid down beside her. He covered her with the blanket and put one arm around her, slightly pulling her to himself.

Though he was tired as Hell, since he'd been awake all night, it took him a long time to get to sleep. He listened to her steady breathing, he could feel her heartbeat and began to shiver slightly, hoping he wouldn't wake her again.

* * *

_**A/N:** Okay, this is not like I wanted it to be... but... whatever... it is just a short filler until I can find my original chapter... -roll eyes-_


	25. crime tsumi

_**A/N**: I know. It's been a really long time since I last updated this. But I had a major writing block regarding this thing. As well as with Kodou. I am really, REALLY sorry about this. But I'm trying my best to continue. So please, bear with me.  
_

* * *

**Chapter 25**

Opening: _crime -tsumi-_ (by _girugamesh_)

A lone wolf wandered the outskirts of Midgar, in hope of finding some prey somewhere. For the past couple of days it had not been too lucky, whatsoever. About a week ago it had thought that it would finally be able to eat something better than starved rabbits, but it had been pretty much disappointed when those strange animals walking on two legs had defended themselves most efficiently and almost killed the wolf instead. It had been sheer luck that it had been able to escape.

Laying down in the shadow of a large rock, it began licking the remainder of its wounds which had not completely healed yet. If it went on like this, the would would soon starve to death. Maybe it would have been better to just have been killed by those humans. At least, that would have been quick.

The wolf suddenly tilted its head, a low growl deep in its throat, when it smelled something. It was almost the same scent as back than, a few days ago. Though the smell seemed to be similar, it was yet different. Less... natural.

"Well... now what do we have here?" a quiet male voice could be heard from behind the rock where the wolf was cowering.

A tall woman with shoulder long hair, wearing a grey suit and dark sunglasses, stepped up to the poor animal. "It is just a starving wolf, sir." Her voice was quite deep, flat and emotionless.

"May it be of some use to us?"

"Can't tell since it's barely alive."

"Take it," the man said. "Get it onto the truck and then we will get your 'sister'."

_T.T_

It was late in the afternoon when Cloud arrived at Junon. Passing the first few houses of town, an irritating feeling of foreboding rose inside of him, though he didn't really know where it actually came from or what it was supposed to mean.

He was still wondering how he could have been that... blind. To not see that Tifa was suffering. This had not been his intention. He'd really had her best interests at heart... always. He had known that she wouldn't be too happy when he left. He had thought that it would be better for her, since he wasn't able to forget about Aerith. But now... somehow he wasn't too sure that his decision to leave her had been the right thing to do anymore.

Maybe he had just been to selfish. And still was.

Cloud really hoped that he would be able to find Tifa here. He still didn't quite get what Aerith had been trying to tell him, she hadn't been very accurate with her statements... now that he thought about it, he wasn't even sure if it really had been her.

But who was he to doubt this?

He would try to find Tifa and explain everything to her. If she really was here in Junon. And if she would listen to him.

That remained to be seen.

_T.T_

Yolanda sighed heavily as she closed the door behind her. She was dead tired after working almost non-stop. On her way to the kitchen she met Reeve.

"Hey," he said and gave her an enquiring look. "Is there something you need?"

"As a matter of fact," she replied, "yes."

They both went down to the kitchen together. After preparing some coffee for both of them, Reeve sat down at the table. "So, what is it that you need... besides some hours of sleep?"

She took a piece of paper and scribbled something down. "I need some things from town, but since I can't leave here at the moment... could you please take care of this?" She handed him the note.

He studied it for some moments, then he nodded. "No problem. I will have one of the guys get this stuff. Or I'll ask Tifa. She will be glad to get out of here for a few hours." He thought for a few seconds, before looking at her. "How is she?"

Yolanda heaved a deep sigh. "There are still no changes, I fear. I need to keep her sedated. And I still can't find out what is actually wrong with her."

Those weren't good news, as far as Reeve was concerned. Naomi had been unconscious for three days now. And still, no one knew why. Sighing, he rubbed his forehead. If this kept like that for much longer... But no. He didn't want to think about it. Reeve shot a sideways glance at Yolanda. "You need some sleep. Let me handle this."

_T.T_

Vincent had stayed at Naomi's side for the best part of the day, though he knew there was nothing he could probably do for her. It was quite unnerving. He really wanted to help her, even though he didn't know her too well. He'd rarely seen her here at Headquarters, since she'd been spending most of her time with Tifa or Elena. Or alone.

The gunman had known from the beginning that something was definitely wrong with her. Apart from being created and experimented on by a psychotic madman who called himself a 'genius'. But he still wasn't able to figure out what it was.

He was pulled out of his reverie when someone knocked at the door. Vincent got up to open and came face to face with Yolanda.

"How is she?" the doctor wanted to know.

"Still no difference," the gunman replied quietly.

Yolanda sighed. "I thought so." She went over to the bed and checked on Naomi's pulse.

"Is there something else I can do right now?" Vincent wanted to know.

The doctor looked up. "No, thank you very much. I will take care of her now."

The ex-Turk nodded and left the room.

* * *

_**A/N:** Part of my original chapter actually turned up again. But I'm not too sure how to continue this, though I have a few ideas. I will have to work on that, I hope that the next chapter will be longer - and better.  
_


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